Keynote
All the blazingly original work by Larry Levis, “one of the greatest poets of a generation” (Carolyn Forché)
Book Title
Swirl & Vortex
Subtitle
Collected Poems
Cover Image
“Necessary for every poetry library . . . as reference, tour, and, as bonus, touching document of the depths of poetic friendships.”—Literary Hub, “Most Anticipated Poetry of 2026”
Poem Excerpt
What do you do when nothing calls you anymore?
When you turn & there is only the light filling the empty window?
When the angel fasting inside you has grown so thin it flies
Out of you a last time without your
Knowing it, & the water dries up in its thimble, & the one swing
In the cage comes to rest after its almost imperceptible,
Almost endless, swaying?
—from “Elegy with a Thimbleful of Water in the Cage”
When you turn & there is only the light filling the empty window?
When the angel fasting inside you has grown so thin it flies
Out of you a last time without your
Knowing it, & the water dries up in its thimble, & the one swing
In the cage comes to rest after its almost imperceptible,
Almost endless, swaying?
—from “Elegy with a Thimbleful of Water in the Cage”
Body
The poetry of Larry Levis increasingly occupies a legendary place of reverence among poets and readers—the spell of his reputation only continuing to widen in the thirty years since his death. From the briefer lyrics and deep image-making of his early books to the long sequences and operatic narratives of his last works, Levis’s poems have an unmistakable signature, a way of expressing the sweep of history, perception, and heartbreak. Over his career, his poetic lines broadened to accommodate the cinematic aperture of his observations on American empire, poverty, landscape, migrant workers, political violence, addiction, and art. Levis’s expansive poems came to resemble the interconnecting patterns just discernible in the eddies of a stream or the leaves circling in a wind.
Swirl & Vortex at last makes all of Levis’s poetry available in one definitive volume. This collection includes the five books published in Levis’s lifetime, a brilliant reconfiguration of Levis’s posthumous books, and unpublished late poems, edited and with an afterword by David St. John. To trace Levis’s poetic development into his extraordinary “late style of fire”—cut short by his early death—is one of the singular experiences in contemporary poetry. Swirl & Vortex is an essential collection by one of the great poets of the end of the twentieth century, and a transformative work spiraling out toward our future.
Swirl & Vortex at last makes all of Levis’s poetry available in one definitive volume. This collection includes the five books published in Levis’s lifetime, a brilliant reconfiguration of Levis’s posthumous books, and unpublished late poems, edited and with an afterword by David St. John. To trace Levis’s poetic development into his extraordinary “late style of fire”—cut short by his early death—is one of the singular experiences in contemporary poetry. Swirl & Vortex is an essential collection by one of the great poets of the end of the twentieth century, and a transformative work spiraling out toward our future.
List Price
$35.00
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About the Author
Credit: Jay Paul
Upcoming Events
“Swirl & Vortex: A Celebration of Larry Levis” at AWP, featuring David St. John, Mai Der Vang, Kevin Young, Carolyn Forché, & John Murillo
Date:
Location:
Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MDview map
LOCATION: Room 318-319, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center. Open to AWP registered attendees. Click here for details.
Praise
- “What Larry Levis has meant to me feels endless. He has never stopped teaching me—not since that first lucky encounter. . . . Levis’s collected poems are capacious and spellbinding, and they grow larger with each reading. Swirl & Vortex is a cosmos.”—Terrance Hayes
- “The voyage through this expansive volume will change you, change what you know a poem to be. . . . Levis’s mastery intensifies from book to book like a thundercloud whose purples deepen and expand until it fills with lightning. . . . I forget there is any other kind of poetry, any other poetry at all.”—Diane Seuss
- “Despite his lyrical genius and mythic poems . . . Levis still risks saying things plainly without any false promise of transcendence. . . . [He is] a literary hero who is only heroic because he’s come back to tell us the awful truth: nothing will keep us alive and nothing will make it better.”—Ada Limón
- “Here, at long last, is Larry Levis’s entire oeuvre in one gorgeous and thoughtfully curated volume. The apostle’s gospels, chapter and verse. Swirl & Vortex. For all of us longtime acolytes, I’m overjoyed; of those reading Levis for the first time, I’m jealous.”—John Murillo
