Special Orders Poems Author:Edward Hirsch In Special Orders, the renowned poet Edward Hirsch brings us a new series of tightly crafted poems, work that demonstrates a thrilling expansion of his tone and subject matter. It is with a mixture of grief and joy that Hirsch examines what he calls ?the minor triumphs, the major failures? of his life so far, in lines that reveal a startl... more »ing frankness in the man composing them, a fearlessness in confronting his own internal divisions: ?I lived between my heart and my head, / like a married couple who can?t get along,? he writes in ?Self-portrait.? These poems constitute a profound, sometimes painful self-examination, by the end of which the poet marvels at the sense of expectancy and transformation he feels. His fifteen-year-old son walking on Broadway is a fledgling about to sail out over the treetops; he has a new love, passionately described in ?I Wish I Could Paint You?; he is ready to live, he tells us, ?solitary, bittersweet, and utterly free.?
More personal than any of his previous collections, Special Orders is Edward Hirsch?s most significant book to date.