A welcome and much-anticipated event, the publication of Ryan"s New and Selected Poems confirms this award-winning poet"s stature as one of the finest of the generation that includes Robert Pinsky, Louise Gluck, and Robert Haas. The eighty-nine poems include favorites from his three previous collections, some revisited and revised, as well as brilliant new poems that appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and elsewhere.Ryan"s poems are filled with the stuff of everyday life: Sears, What-a-Burger, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Space Invaders. His plainspoken voice conveys both mordant wit and passionate intelligence: "About a half pizza and double gin / his proffered hand trembled in the dark / as if, polished and slapped by cologne, / he had ridden a jackhammer from New York." Widely acclaimed for their consummate craftsmanship, these poems of three decades will bring a large new readership to one of America"s most provocative, acclaimed, and distinguished poets.