Luxury: Poems

Luxury: Poems by Philip Schultz, 76 pages.
Philip Schultz, Jewish-American poet, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, Failure, and the founder and director of the Writers' Studio,
has written an another astoundingly good collection. The emotional range of the works included is great, from the loss and despair found in poems like "Sacrifice,"

A vest designed to explode.
An argument about God
and nothingness and shame.
An idea infused with hunger,
with hate spread over the pavement,
smeared along the wall, obscuring
every view and reflection . . .

to the depth and vision found in the title poem, make for great reading, this is from the beginning of section Two of "Luxury,"

Sometimes
a noise I can sense
but not hear
ricochets
in a place in me
I can't name.
That's when
the darkness accentuates
of guilt and shame
and I'm unable to distinguish
between misery
and nothingness.
When
all dignity vanishes
and nothing is left to say
or do,
be curious about,
or desire.
When
my mother's voice
pleads
for me to remember
everything
I live for.