All You Ask For is Longing

Sean Thomas Dougherty is the author of Nightshift Belonging to Lorca, a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize; Except by Falling, winner of the 2000 Pinyon Press Poetry Prize from Mesa State College; and BOA titles Broken Hallelujahs, Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line, and All You Ask For is Longing: New and Selected Poems. His awards include two Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowships in Poetry. Known for his electrifying performances, he has toured extensively across North America and Europe. He received an MFA in poetry from Syracuse University and lives in Erie, PA where he teaches writing workshops.

"[Dougherty] wears his heart on both sleeves--he is not for everyone: but readers in search of socially conscious vigor, of street energy and "something to hold onto," may find that Dougherty is just what they need." --Publishers Weekly "Dougerty has been a staple of the underground poetry scene for nearly 30 years. He's come up the hard way--no overnight successes, no long-term university positions--and his poetry is as honest and ALIVE as any you'll read. When people talk about the poetry scene going soft or the scourge of 'workshopped poems' or, God forbid, the death of poetry--it's because they haven't read Dougherty's work. This New and Selected volume covers his full career-to-date and should wake us all up to the underground sound that's throbbing like a bass drum in the heart of contemporary poetry. Poetry ain't dead. It's working in a pool hall in Erie, Pennsylvania." --BUSTLE "There is unflinching realism in his work that the astute reader soon realizes that his poetry and his humanitarianism are among the most worthy American literary descendants of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, whom Dougherty refers to as the father and mother of American poetry." --Utah Review "Dougherty celebrates a pivotal (if symbolic) touchstone. For more than two decades Dougherty has maintained a unique place in contemporary poetry by honoring the ghost notes of our everyday life. The breadth of this selected collection charts the development of Dougherty's career and examines our conflated assumptions of race, class, and the urban experience... His work, however personal, can also serve as a kind of historical record; the heart inside the heart of urban America. The political realities of our time are evoked on every page, whether or not Dougherty calls them out by name. Rather, it is the canvas backdrop of an extended portrait spanning two decades of indelible poetry." -Pleiades

• DISCOGRAPHYNew Poems Long Like a RiverDear L, Am I Another Exchanged for YesThe Blues is a VerbDear L, The Choruses We Lost Along the CoastPoem To Be Put in A Drawer After TellingThe Spanish Poet Tries to ExplainSong for my FatherPoem Written on a Chain-Link FenceAgainst EconomicsWhat Singing Left We Wrote Was What Was SungDear L, I Don’t Know How Across the Grass Our Daughter RunsBalancing Life (a ball a blade a)Most of my Life is Gnawing the Most Remarkable LiesOur LimpingWhen the Sirens ShriekAt the Toss of a Coin A Dream Like a Jaguar Walked into Jorge’s CueDouble ItJorge’s UncleDear You Who Never ReturnedMore Alone Than LonlienessDeserted Parking Lots with Faded LinesWe Once Were Stolen SkateboardsA WeightWhat Is Lost Is Never SaidWaiting to be Shot in the BackSearching for a Shallow VeinDecateur ChevyDear L, DizzyDear L, I Cannot SpellAnything That Can Be MisreadDear L,I Am Your ScarThe Voice I Pretend I Am SometimeDear L, The Door Shuts the RainEveryway Our Lungs Tattered~The Mercy of Sleep 1994Tears for Saint CatherineTears of Saint CatherineThe Staircase of the Body On her Journey to Avignon to Argue the Fate of the Church with the PopeLike the Wings of White Moths on Moonless NightsWounds of Blood and Light~Love Song of the Young Couple, The Dumb Job 1994At Mike’s Pub and GrubTiny GriefsDanger FlammableThe SweeperI’m Looking for Lorca in your LettersI Open my Eyes to the Wind at the Corner~The Body’s Precarious Balance 1997Beyond the Chain-Link FencePoem for Anthony Otherwise Known as HeadDays of 1984Long Coats with Deep PocketsInsert Your Name HereAn Iron SpiralCocoonsMoon-Grief UtteranceThe CoatAlba on the Second FloorClay~Except by Falling 2000Spoken Blind to a Break Beat While DrinkingUntitled at Hong FatsThe Somnambulist WaltzHungryThere is Nothing to Offer my BreathLamentationThe Body is the WaterNine Innings to Go~The Biography of Broken Things 2003In the Biography of Broken ThingsPrisonsThemAt a Certain Hour. On a Certain DaySpread Your WingsIn the Rain~Nightshift Belonging to Lorca 2004InvocationErotic PoemOrangesFuck Me Like Being Born (after Ruth Schwartz)Sean Thomas DoughertyBus Stop at 12th StreetRimas DissolutasAgainst GreenSnowglobeIn the Gloaming~Broken Hallelujahs 2007Dear PistachioThe Sky InsideAll You Ask for is LongingMy Father’s Fro in the Mode of Romare BeardenOberek for Etheridge KnightThe Day Biggie Smalls Died (AKA Christopher Wallace, March 7, 1997)Embraceable YouKowalski: A HistoriographyWhat We KeepAfter the Election~Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line 2010AriasThe Opposite of ElegyDear TiaraOur Love as an Origami CraneRaphaelShellUntitled on Someone Else’s AnniversaryDuet