A wondrous new collection by Dana Gioia, "one of America's premier
poets and critics" (Julia Alvarez).
Dana Gioia has been hailed for decades as a master of traditional lyric
forms, whose expansive and accessible poems are offerings of rare
poignancy and insight. In Meet Me at the Lighthouse, he invites us
back to old Los Angeles, where the shabby nightclub of the title beckons
us into its noirish immortality. Elsewhere, he laments the once-vibrant
neighborhood where he grew up, now bulldozed, and recalls his
working-class family of immigrants. Gioia describes a haunting from his
mother on his birthday, Christmas Eve. Another poem remembers his uncle,
a US Merchant Marine. And "The Ballad of Jesús Ortiz" tells the story of
his great-grandfather, a Mexican vaquero who was shot dead at a tavern
in Wyoming during a dispute over a bar tab. "I praise my ancestors, the
unkillable poor," Gioia writes. This book is dedicated to their memory.
Including poems, song lyrics, translations, and concluding with an
unsettling train ride to the underworld, Meet Me at the Lighthouse is
a luminous exploration of nostalgia, mortality, and what makes a life
worth living and remembering.