Heaven: Collected Poems, 1956-1990

The largess of this book (nearly 300 poems) matches the sensibility of the poetry that is devised with broad brushstrokes and unrestricted affection for the ordinary world. Young ( Seduction by Light ) is interested in everything from Li Po to Nijinsky, from the Rolling Stones to John Coltrane. The geographic reach of the collection stretches from Brooklyn to Paris, Los Angeles, Mississippi, Poland, Stockholm and Detroit. From the beginning, Young's work was affected by the black experience and the first poems focus on ``dilettante'' militants, jazz musicians and important distinctions between black and white: ``When white people speak of being uptight / theyrestet talking about dissolution & deflection / but when black people say uptight / they mean everything's all right.'' This poetry is ``uptight,'' full of play, openness, a certain kind of ease. Young rejects blind anger, which segregates; his instruction to a friend is succinct: ``Nor must you let the great haters / of our time / rattle in your heart.'' The introduction presents a diverse list of poets who have influenced Young, including Mayakovsky, Lorca and LeRoi Jones. There is also some of the dreamy parody of Frank O'Hara at work here. (Sept.)