from the back cover

MOMENTS OF FEAR AND BEAUTY

"First published in 1990, Luke Whisnant's Street is a collection of twenty-two narrative poems unified in subject, style, and setting. The poems turn on the tension of opposing voices: the alien, out-of-place narrator and his local, street-smart interlocutors, denizens of a blighted cityscape who chide, menace, and encourage. By turns comedic and nightmarish, playful and hostile, gritty and surreal, Street explores the nature of urban violence and the power of language to connect and transform."

Cover photo and book design by the author.