Scribbled in the Dark: Poems

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning former poet laureate, a collection of elegiac, irreverent new poems—an American master at the height of his talent

 The latest volume of poetry from Charles Simic hums with the liveliness of the writer’s pen. Scribbled in the Dark brings the poet’s signature sardonic sense of humor, piercing social insight, and haunting lyricism to diverse and richly imagined landscapes. Peopled by policemen, presidents, kids in Halloween masks, a fortune-teller, a fly on the wall of the poet’s kitchen; set on crowded New York streets, on park benches, and under darkened skies; the pages within toy with the end of the world and its infinity. Simic continues to be an imitable voice in modern American poetry and one of its finest chroniclers of the human condition.

What happens when one of America’s greatest poets turns his eye to the absurdities of modern life?

• Surreal Poetry: Find the profound in the mundane, from a fly on a kitchen wall to a shadow in a pitch-dark fishbowl.
• Urban Poetry: Walk the crowded, dimly-lit streets of New York City and other richly imagined American landscapes where anything can happen.
• Philosophical Poetry: Grapple with mortality, infinity, and the human condition in poems that are both hauntingly lyrical and deeply insightful.
• Literary Poetry: Experience the peerless craft of a Pulitzer Prize-winning former poet laureate at the height of his powers.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning former poet laureate, a collection of elegiac, irreverent new poems—an American master at the height of his talent

The latest volume of poetry from Charles Simic hums with the liveliness of the writer’s pen. Scribbled in the Dark brings the poet’s signature sardonic sense of humor, piercing social insight, and haunting lyricism to diverse and richly imagined landscapes. Peopled by policemen, presidents, kids in Halloween masks, a fortune-teller, and a fly on the wall of the poet’s kitchen; set on crowded New York streets, on park benches, and under darkened skies; the pages within toy with the end of the world and its infinity. Simic continues to be an inimitable voice in modern American poetry and one of its finest chroniclers of the human condition.

“Simic...has always challenged and delighted his audience with writing that is beautiful and surreal and forces people to consider the validity of their own perceptions.” - Washington Post

“Image by image, Simic composes miniature masterpieces, offering what appears as a seemingly effortless study in language’s cinematic possibilities.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)