Dorianne Laux 
The Book of Men: Poems 

‘Laux writes gritty, tough, lyrical poems that depict the actual nature of life in the West today.’—Philip Levine

The narrative poems in Dorianne Laux’s fifth collection charge through the summer of love, where Vietnam casts a long shadow, and into the present day, where she compassionately paints the smoky bars, graffiti, and addiction of urban life. Laux is ‘continually engaging and, at her best, luminous’ (
San Diego Union-Tribune).



from ‘To Kiss Frank, ‘


     make out with him a bit, this
     is what my friend would like to do
     oh these too many dead summers later,
     and as much as I want to stroll with her
     into the poet’s hazy fancy
     all I can see is O’Hara’s long gone lips
     fallen free of the bone, slumbering
     beneath the grainy soil.

About the author

Dorianne Laux’s poetry collections include the Pulitzer Prize finalist Only as the Day Is Long and Life On Earth. She received the Paterson Poetry Prize and is a founding faculty member of Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program. She lives in Richmond, California.