Alicia Suskin Ostriker’s passionate voice has long been acknowledged as a vital force in American poetry. From urgent spiritual quest to biting political satire, from elegy to comedy, from celebration of the city street and the world "as a paradise might be / if we had eyes to see," to the "crack in earth . . . crack in her mind," from brilliant evocations of art and music to mother-daughter wrestlings, Ostriker’s poetry rings with insistence on beauty and truth. Drawing from six of her previous books, and highlighting a sequence of bold new poems exploring the challenges and absurdities of aging, The Volcano and After is a masterpiece for our time.

Alicia Suskin Ostriker's passionate voice has long been acknowledged as a vital force in American poetry. From urgent spiritual quest to biting political satire, from elegy to comedy, from celebration of the city street and the world "e;as a paradise might be / if we had eyes to see,"e; to the "e;crack in earth . . . crack in her mind,"e; from brilliant evocations of art and music to mother-daughter wrestlings, Ostriker's poetry rings with insistence on beauty and truth. Drawing from six of her previous books, and highlighting a sequence of bold new poems exploring the challenges and absurdities of aging, The Volcano and After is a masterpiece for our time. OLD WOMAN AT THE RIVEROn the bank of the riverI slide inside my sleeping bagsleep is good if I am notkept awake by coughingthe sound of the water soothestime passes and does not passwhen I am better I will sitand meditate for a whilethere may be birds to listen tothen I will step down the bankand put my naked foot in the waterwhich will shock at first,being so cold, so swift.