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Useless Landscape, or a Guide for Boys

Poems

by D. A. Powell

Useless Landscape, or a Guide for Boys

Hardcover, 80 pages, Graywolf Press, List Price: $22 | purchase

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Book Reviews

Hell's Music: A 'Guide For Boys' With Adult Themes

cover detail

February 16, 2012 D.A. Powell's poems in Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys subvert Boy Scout imagery with cheekiness, and take on desire, salvation and HIV with courage. This is a book that looks death in the eye — and winks.

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Poetry

Not Your Parents' Poems: A 2012 Poetry Preview

I'm willing to wager we'll be reading D.A. Powell — closely — in a hundred years, because his poems tell a whole lot of the story of America's last four decades. Powell's poems arose out of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s gay community in San Francisco (Powell himself is HIV-positive) and in recalling the parties and lives AIDS brought to an end, Powell created a whole new poetic instrument, a blend of hip, contemporary reference — to '80s bands, campy movies and gay porn — and a... more

 

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