Young, Dean 2000
with Kenneth Koch
We cannot push ourselves away
from this quiet, even in our sprees
of inattention, the departing passengers
stubbing out their smokes, arrivees in tears,
lots of cellophane, the rumpus over parking.
– Dean Young, “Sleep Cycle”
Listen to Dean Young’s reading with Kenneth Koch for the Poetry Center of Chicago on February 10, 2000:
You shouldn’t have a heart attack
in your 20s. 47 is the perfect time
for a heart attack. Feeding stray shadows
only attracts more shadows. Starve a fever,
shatter a glass house. People often mistake
thirst for hunger so first take a big slurp.
– Dean Young, “Folklore”
Read NPR’s segment on Dean Young’s Pre-Transplant Poetry:
The Heart Of Dean Young’s Pre-Transplant Poetry
Poet Dean Young has dealt with impermanence a lot in his career, but it’s a particularly poignant theme in Young’s latest collection, Fall Higher. The new collection was published in April, just days after the poet received a life-saving heart transplant after about a decade of living with a degenerative heart condition.
