X. J. Kennedy has written poetry, children's verse, and fiction as well as textbooks on writing and literature. Before becoming a full-time writer, he taught at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the University of California-Irvine, and Leeds University. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife and sometime coauthor, Dorothy M. Kennedy.

A splendid volume... It is impossible not to think that his work will grow in estimation with each passing year. Booklist 2007 Kennedy is both a conceptualizer and a musician... the transformative element in Kennedy's creative process is the exactitude of his craft. -- Donald Junkins North Dakota Quarterly 2007 To us, Kennedy is the best of the best. RALPH: Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy, and the Humanities 2008 A worthy heir... to the indispensably impertinent likes of Catullus amd Dean Swift-cheerfully serving notice that there's still nothing like an artfully pithy piece of verse for making short work of killjoys. -- David Barber Boston Globe 2008 X. J. Kennedy? He ought to be declared a national resource and excused from taxation. -- Wyatt Prunty Weekly Standard 2008 The high quality, abundance, and breadth of his writing-poetry, children's work, fiction, textbooks-and hislong presence on the literary scene make him one of the most important American poets today. -- Catherine Savage Brosman Chronicles 2008

• Nude Descending a Staircase (1961)First ConfessionSolitary ConfinementOn a Child Who Lived One MinuteFaces from a BestiaryNude Descending a StaircaseThe Autumn in Norfolk ShipyardWarning to SculptorsLewis CarrollIn a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One DayBarking Dog BluesInscriptions after FactLilithThe SirensNarcissus SuitorTheater of DionysusAt the Stoplight by the Paupers' GravesLittle ElegyLadies Looking for LiceB NegativeAt Ghostwriter's DeathbedRondelOne a.m. with VoicesGrowing into LoveCross TiesPoetsNothing in Heaven Functions as It OughtTraveler's WarningsMain Road WestEdgar's StoryNational ShrinePeace and PlentyDriving Cross-CountryReading TripRequiem in HobokenFor a Maiden LadyPottery ClassAbsentminded BartenderLoose WomanAnt TrapWest Somerville, Mass.Day SevenThe AscentGolgothaOdeTwo ApparitionsArtificerDaughter in the HouseThe Shorter ViewGiving in to YouSlim VolumesBreaking and EnteringSong: Great Chain of BeingConsumer's ReportThe Atheist's StigmaIn a Secret FieldEmily Dickinson in Southern California (1973)Mining TownSchizophrenic GirlEvening TideA Little Night MusicCelebrations After the Death of John Brennan (1974)Three Tenors, One Vehicle (1975)Talking Dust Bowl BluesSong to the Tune of "Somebody Stole My Gal"Cross Ties: Selected Poems (1985)In a Dry SeasonA Footpath Near GethsemaneDirty English PotatoesGobletAunt Rectita's Good FridayHangover MassOne-night HomecomingOctoberJoshuaOld Men Pitching HorseshoesTo Dorothy on Her Exclusion from The Guinness Book of World RecordsAt the Last Rites for Two HotroddersFlitting FliesThe Death of Professor BackwardsAt Brown Crane PavilionOn the Proposed Seizure of Twelve Graves in a Colonial CemeteryA Beardsley MomentDark Horses (1992)The ArmTwelve Dead, Hundreds HomelessThe Waterbury CrossVeterinarianThe Animals You EatSnugOvernight PassTwo from Guillaume ApollinairePont MirabeauChurchbellsTo the Writers Forbidden to WriteTerse Elegy for J. V. CunninghamOn Being Accused of WitEmily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World Now that Her Homestead in Amherst Has an Answering MachineThe Withdrawn GiftOn the SquareDumpSummer ChildrenTableau IntimeFinisBlack Velvet ArtThe Lords of Misrule (2002)"The Purpose of Time Is to Prevent Everything from Happening at Once"Jimmy HarlowNaomi TrimmerFive-and-Dime, Late ThirtiesSailors with the ClapFor Allen GinsbergThebes: In the Robber VillageClose CallStreet MothsDécorThe Ballad of Fenimore Woolson and Henry JamesA Scandal in the SuburbsTo His Lover, That She Be Not OverdressedThe Blessing of the BikesSharing the ScoreA Curse on a ThiefPieShriveled MeditationMeditation in the Bedroom of General Francisco FrancoMaples in JanuarySeptember Twelfth, 2001New PoemsPanic in the CarwashAt PaestumRitesSmall House Torn Down To Build a LargerUncertain BurialInnocent TimesEpiphanyFurnished RentalBrotherhoodDeath of a Window WasherPacifierGeometrySilent Cell PhonesFirefliesMrs. Filbert's Golden QuartersJerry ChristmasPoor People in ChurchSonnet Beginning with a Line and a Half Abandoned by Dante Gabriel RossettiGod's ObsequiesStorehouseAt the Antiques FairSecret RiverCommand DecisionBald EagleMeeting a Friend Again After Thirty YearsFinding a TintypeOut of Tune with the StarsEnvoiNotesIndex of Titles and First Lines

X. J. Kennedy has written poetry, children's verse, and fiction as well as textbooks on writing and literature. Before becoming a full-time writer, he taught at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the University of California-Irvine, and Leeds University. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife and sometime coauthor, Dorothy M. Kennedy.

A splendid volume... It is impossible not to think that his work will grow in estimation with each passing year. Booklist 2007 Kennedy is both a conceptualizer and a musician... the transformative element in Kennedy's creative process is the exactitude of his craft. -- Donald Junkins North Dakota Quarterly 2007 To us, Kennedy is the best of the best. RALPH: Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy, and the Humanities 2008 A worthy heir... to the indispensably impertinent likes of Catullus amd Dean Swift-cheerfully serving notice that there's still nothing like an artfully pithy piece of verse for making short work of killjoys. -- David Barber Boston Globe 2008 X. J. Kennedy? He ought to be declared a national resource and excused from taxation. -- Wyatt Prunty Weekly Standard 2008 The high quality, abundance, and breadth of his writing-poetry, children's work, fiction, textbooks-and hislong presence on the literary scene make him one of the most important American poets today. -- Catherine Savage Brosman Chronicles 2008

• Nude Descending a Staircase (1961)First ConfessionSolitary ConfinementOn a Child Who Lived One MinuteFaces from a BestiaryNude Descending a StaircaseThe Autumn in Norfolk ShipyardWarning to SculptorsLewis CarrollIn a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One DayBarking Dog BluesInscriptions after FactLilithThe SirensNarcissus SuitorTheater of DionysusAt the Stoplight by the Paupers' GravesLittle ElegyLadies Looking for LiceB NegativeAt Ghostwriter's DeathbedRondelOne a.m. with VoicesGrowing into LoveCross TiesPoetsNothing in Heaven Functions as It OughtTraveler's WarningsMain Road WestEdgar's StoryNational ShrinePeace and PlentyDriving Cross-CountryReading TripRequiem in HobokenFor a Maiden LadyPottery ClassAbsentminded BartenderLoose WomanAnt TrapWest Somerville, Mass.Day SevenThe AscentGolgothaOdeTwo ApparitionsArtificerDaughter in the HouseThe Shorter ViewGiving in to YouSlim VolumesBreaking and EnteringSong: Great Chain of BeingConsumer's ReportThe Atheist's StigmaIn a Secret FieldEmily Dickinson in Southern California (1973)Mining TownSchizophrenic GirlEvening TideA Little Night MusicCelebrations After the Death of John Brennan (1974)Three Tenors, One Vehicle (1975)Talking Dust Bowl BluesSong to the Tune of "Somebody Stole My Gal"Cross Ties: Selected Poems (1985)In a Dry SeasonA Footpath Near GethsemaneDirty English PotatoesGobletAunt Rectita's Good FridayHangover MassOne-night HomecomingOctoberJoshuaOld Men Pitching HorseshoesTo Dorothy on Her Exclusion from The Guinness Book of World RecordsAt the Last Rites for Two HotroddersFlitting FliesThe Death of Professor BackwardsAt Brown Crane PavilionOn the Proposed Seizure of Twelve Graves in a Colonial CemeteryA Beardsley MomentDark Horses (1992)The ArmTwelve Dead, Hundreds HomelessThe Waterbury CrossVeterinarianThe Animals You EatSnugOvernight PassTwo from Guillaume ApollinairePont MirabeauChurchbellsTo the Writers Forbidden to WriteTerse Elegy for J. V. CunninghamOn Being Accused of WitEmily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World Now that Her Homestead in Amherst Has an Answering MachineThe Withdrawn GiftOn the SquareDumpSummer ChildrenTableau IntimeFinisBlack Velvet ArtThe Lords of Misrule (2002)"The Purpose of Time Is to Prevent Everything from Happening at Once"Jimmy HarlowNaomi TrimmerFive-and-Dime, Late ThirtiesSailors with the ClapFor Allen GinsbergThebes: In the Robber VillageClose CallStreet MothsDécorThe Ballad of Fenimore Woolson and Henry JamesA Scandal in the SuburbsTo His Lover, That She Be Not OverdressedThe Blessing of the BikesSharing the ScoreA Curse on a ThiefPieShriveled MeditationMeditation in the Bedroom of General Francisco FrancoMaples in JanuarySeptember Twelfth, 2001New PoemsPanic in the CarwashAt PaestumRitesSmall House Torn Down To Build a LargerUncertain BurialInnocent TimesEpiphanyFurnished RentalBrotherhoodDeath of a Window WasherPacifierGeometrySilent Cell PhonesFirefliesMrs. Filbert's Golden QuartersJerry ChristmasPoor People in ChurchSonnet Beginning with a Line and a Half Abandoned by Dante Gabriel RossettiGod's ObsequiesStorehouseAt the Antiques FairSecret RiverCommand DecisionBald EagleMeeting a Friend Again After Thirty YearsFinding a TintypeOut of Tune with the StarsEnvoiNotesIndex of Titles and First Lines

X. J. Kennedy has written poetry, children's verse, and fiction as well as textbooks on writing and literature. Before becoming a full-time writer, he taught at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the University of California-Irvine, and Leeds University. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife and sometime coauthor, Dorothy M. Kennedy.

A splendid volume... It is impossible not to think that his work will grow in estimation with each passing year. Booklist 2007 Kennedy is both a conceptualizer and a musician... the transformative element in Kennedy's creative process is the exactitude of his craft. -- Donald Junkins North Dakota Quarterly 2007 To us, Kennedy is the best of the best. RALPH: Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy, and the Humanities 2008 A worthy heir... to the indispensably impertinent likes of Catullus amd Dean Swift-cheerfully serving notice that there's still nothing like an artfully pithy piece of verse for making short work of killjoys. -- David Barber Boston Globe 2008 X. J. Kennedy? He ought to be declared a national resource and excused from taxation. -- Wyatt Prunty Weekly Standard 2008 The high quality, abundance, and breadth of his writing-poetry, children's work, fiction, textbooks-and hislong presence on the literary scene make him one of the most important American poets today. -- Catherine Savage Brosman Chronicles 2008

• Nude Descending a Staircase (1961)First ConfessionSolitary ConfinementOn a Child Who Lived One MinuteFaces from a BestiaryNude Descending a StaircaseThe Autumn in Norfolk ShipyardWarning to SculptorsLewis CarrollIn a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One DayBarking Dog BluesInscriptions after FactLilithThe SirensNarcissus SuitorTheater of DionysusAt the Stoplight by the Paupers' GravesLittle ElegyLadies Looking for LiceB NegativeAt Ghostwriter's DeathbedRondelOne a.m. with VoicesGrowing into LoveCross TiesPoetsNothing in Heaven Functions as It OughtTraveler's WarningsMain Road WestEdgar's StoryNational ShrinePeace and PlentyDriving Cross-CountryReading TripRequiem in HobokenFor a Maiden LadyPottery ClassAbsentminded BartenderLoose WomanAnt TrapWest Somerville, Mass.Day SevenThe AscentGolgothaOdeTwo ApparitionsArtificerDaughter in the HouseThe Shorter ViewGiving in to YouSlim VolumesBreaking and EnteringSong: Great Chain of BeingConsumer's ReportThe Atheist's StigmaIn a Secret FieldEmily Dickinson in Southern California (1973)Mining TownSchizophrenic GirlEvening TideA Little Night MusicCelebrations After the Death of John Brennan (1974)Three Tenors, One Vehicle (1975)Talking Dust Bowl BluesSong to the Tune of "Somebody Stole My Gal"Cross Ties: Selected Poems (1985)In a Dry SeasonA Footpath Near GethsemaneDirty English PotatoesGobletAunt Rectita's Good FridayHangover MassOne-night HomecomingOctoberJoshuaOld Men Pitching HorseshoesTo Dorothy on Her Exclusion from The Guinness Book of World RecordsAt the Last Rites for Two HotroddersFlitting FliesThe Death of Professor BackwardsAt Brown Crane PavilionOn the Proposed Seizure of Twelve Graves in a Colonial CemeteryA Beardsley MomentDark Horses (1992)The ArmTwelve Dead, Hundreds HomelessThe Waterbury CrossVeterinarianThe Animals You EatSnugOvernight PassTwo from Guillaume ApollinairePont MirabeauChurchbellsTo the Writers Forbidden to WriteTerse Elegy for J. V. CunninghamOn Being Accused of WitEmily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World Now that Her Homestead in Amherst Has an Answering MachineThe Withdrawn GiftOn the SquareDumpSummer ChildrenTableau IntimeFinisBlack Velvet ArtThe Lords of Misrule (2002)"The Purpose of Time Is to Prevent Everything from Happening at Once"Jimmy HarlowNaomi TrimmerFive-and-Dime, Late ThirtiesSailors with the ClapFor Allen GinsbergThebes: In the Robber VillageClose CallStreet MothsDécorThe Ballad of Fenimore Woolson and Henry JamesA Scandal in the SuburbsTo His Lover, That She Be Not OverdressedThe Blessing of the BikesSharing the ScoreA Curse on a ThiefPieShriveled MeditationMeditation in the Bedroom of General Francisco FrancoMaples in JanuarySeptember Twelfth, 2001New PoemsPanic in the CarwashAt PaestumRitesSmall House Torn Down To Build a LargerUncertain BurialInnocent TimesEpiphanyFurnished RentalBrotherhoodDeath of a Window WasherPacifierGeometrySilent Cell PhonesFirefliesMrs. Filbert's Golden QuartersJerry ChristmasPoor People in ChurchSonnet Beginning with a Line and a Half Abandoned by Dante Gabriel RossettiGod's ObsequiesStorehouseAt the Antiques FairSecret RiverCommand DecisionBald EagleMeeting a Friend Again After Thirty YearsFinding a TintypeOut of Tune with the StarsEnvoiNotesIndex of Titles and First Lines