The Opposite House: Poems

With graceful lines swooping like a bird in flight, Claudia Emerson's newest collection explores the harsh realities of aging and the limitations of the human body, as well as the loneliness, fear, and anger that can accompany us as we live.

Keenly observed and beautifully executed, these poems move from the grim fa ade that hides beauty-prosthetic eyes- to the beautiful scene that conceals violence-a rural retreat. Emerson also considers once common things that are fast becoming obsolete: cursive writing, telephone booths, barbers.

At once hopeful and cognizant of all the reasons why humans might despair, these poems echo with remarkable insight into the true nature of life.

CLAUDIA EMERSON has published five poetry collections with LSU Press, including Late Wife, Figure Studies, and Secure the Shadow. A professor of English and member of the creative writing faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Emerson has served as the poet laureate of Virginia and won numerous awards for teaching and writing, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.