Odd Mercy: Poems - Hardcover

One of our most acclaimed poets wrestles with the issues - love, hope, memory, faith - that have occupied him "in the second half of my sixth decade on beautiful earth". The centerpiece of Gerald Stern's ninth collection is a long poem titled "Hot Dog" named for a beautiful street woman who lives in and around Tompkins Square Park. Other characters in this poem are St. Augustine, Walt Whitman, Noah, Gerald Stern himself, and a ninety-year-old black preacher from the Midwest. In "Hot Dog", and throughout this collection, Stern examines the long journey towards redemption and justice and the bitter struggle - and battle - over our minds and souls.

Gerald Stern is the author of the National Book Award-winning This Time, the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize-winning Early Selected Poems, and other books. He has also been awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Wallace Stevens Award, among many other honors. He lives in Lambertville, New Jersey.