For the Kingdom (American Poets Continuum) - Softcover

In the tradition of Pablo Neruda, Robert Bly, and James Wright, Anthony Piccione writes rich, imagistic poems that jar the reader with their brilliant simplicity. "His poems build by the most essential, primary materials...yet sustain the effect of vision... Piccione's images are the kinds of dreams we rewrite in order to make sense of ourselves."--Stanley Plumly, American Poetry Review

Piccione is less concerned with public imagery and more with the human psyche, how the unconscious can surface and lead us toward discoveries in language that sustain us. As such, the poems are visionary and vital, finding passage through the woods and fields surrounding the author's cabin in rural Upstate, New York. Complementing the poems are lyrical prose memoirs. Here, readers travel through a mountain pass in Tibet, ride the Jericho Highway from Long Island to Bensonhurst, and accompany Piccione as he teaches poetry to Chinese students in Beijing. Whatever and however the journey, the writings in For The Kingdom ask us to be generous and patient.