Live from the Hong Kong Nile Club

"I have loved the air outside Shop-Rite Liquor
on summer evenings
better than the Marin hills at dusk
lavender and gold
stretching miles to the sea.

At the junction, up from the synagogue
a weeknight, necessarily
and with my father—
a sale on German beer.

Air full of living dust:
bus exhaust, air-borne grains of pizza crust
wounded crystals
appearing, disappearing
among streetlights and unsuccessful neon."—"Poetics"

Though Kleinzahler's first collections earned him a cult following, they have long been out of print or hard to find. For Live from the Hong Kong Nile Club, Kleinzahler—credited by The Times (London) with the "vision and confident skill to make American poetry new"—has chosen the best of Storm over Hackensack, Earthquake Weather, and other volumes. Featuring a new autobiographical preface, this collection makes available the early work of a contemporary master.