Missing Mountain

Michael Collier is the author of eight collections of poems, including An Individual History, a finalist for the Poet's Prize, and The Ledge, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is emeritus professor of English at the University of Maryland and emeritus director of the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences. He has received numerous honors, including a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he was the poet laureate of the State of Maryland from 2001 to 2004. He currently lives in Vermont.

"The title poem of Michael Collier's newest collection captures the poet at his best. "The Missing Mountain," originally published in Dark Wild Realm (2006), combines images of specific objects and memories with lush description and satisfying philosophical twists. The unrhymed yet tightly controlled stanzas are composed of lines with a natural musical quality, somewhere between loose tetrameter and everyday speech."

• Acknowledgmentsfrom My Bishop and Other Poems (2018)MeadowMy BishopAnecdote of the Piano in the WoodsBronze Foot in a Glass CaseThe StormBoom BoomA Wild Tom TurkeyLen Bias, a Bouquet of Roses, and Ms. BrooksLast Morning with Steve Orlenfrom An Individual History (2012)An Individual HistoryMy Mother of InventionGrandmother with Mink Stole, Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix, Arizona, 1959CyclopsAt the End of a Ninetieth SummerBrendan’s HairPietyDoctor FriendlyHistoryRabid HeadThe Bees of Deir KifaEmbraceLaelapsSix Lines for Louise Boganfrom Dark Wild Realm (2006)Birds Appearing in a DreamConfessionalSummer AnniversaryBird Crashing into WindowThe WatchThe Missing MountainSinging, 5 A.M.Mine Own John ClareElegy for a Long-Dead FriendA Line from Robert Desnos Used to Commemorate George “Sonny” Took-the-Shield, Fort Belknap, MontanaBardofrom The Ledge (2000)ArgosMy CrucifixionThe WordThe FarrierGhazalAll SoulsBrave SparrowPay-Per-ViewCerberusPax Geologicafrom The Neighbor (1995)Archimedes2212 West Flower StreetThe House of BeingThe BarberThe RancherMission BoulevardThe Steam EnginePictures Drawn by Atomic Bomb SurvivorsLetter from Mrs. C. G. VogtThe Water Dreamfrom The Folded Heart (1989)North CorridorSpider TumorBurialThe ProblemThe Heavy Light of Shifting StarsFeedbackThe Cavefrom The Clasp (1986)AquariumWhite StrawberriesIn KhabarovskBrugesTwo Girls in a ChairThe ClaspNew Poems (2021)A Man of Rueful CountenanceA True Story about a Cat and a PossumBee to KeeperPortrait of Two Young CouplesColloquy with a Polish AuntThe Salvation of AmericaGoat on a Pile of Scrap LumberCyclist Braking for Two Foxes Crossing a Country Road in Early MorningMorning Crows in a Fresh Mown Field before RainHis Highness’s Dog at KewPenn RelaysWinterOur Felix RandalIn LifeBluebirdsPoem for a Sixtieth BirthdayToday I Can WriteTo the Muse of DyingTree beyond Your WindowNotes