Dream Kitchen (Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry)

Owen McLeod's extraordinary debut maps the contours of an ordinary life: the rise and fall of romantic love, the struggle against mental illness, and the unending quest for meaning and transcendence. Ranging from sonnets and sestinas to experimental forms, these poems are unified by their musicality, devotion to craft, and openness of heart. From ""All Saints' Eve"" From a La-Z-Boy abandoned on the basketball court, I watched you light up the KFC, part traffic for the rush-hour ambulance, raise weeds from asphalt cracks, cause rain to come down like Adidas on me, mofo of infinite faith. Trees were your fingers, not prints or clues. Never were you uppercase with me.