From one of the defining poets of his generation, a new collection
that plumbs the depth of beauty, history, responsibility, and love.
As Far As You Know, acclaimed poet A. F. Moritz's twentieth collection
of poems, begins with two sections entitled "Terrorism" and "Poetry."
The book unfolds in six movements, yet it revolves around and agonizes
over the struggle between these two catalyzing concepts, in all the
forms they might take, eventually arguing they are the unavoidable
conditions and quandaries of human life.
Written and organized chronologically around before and after the poet's
serious illness and heart surgery in 2014, these gorgeously unguarded
poems plumb and deepen the reader's understanding of Moritz's primary
and ongoing obsessions: beauty, impermanence, history, social conscience
and responsibility, and, always and most urgently, love. For all its
necessary engagement with worry, sorrow, and fragility, As Far As You
Know sings a final insistent chorus to what it loves: "You will live."