X

X is a simple gesture and a multiplicity it is both letter and number, and represents the mathematical unknown as well as the signature by which one is known. It is a palindrome, a location, a cancellation. X is the kiss, the embrace, and the betrayal. In James Galvin's sixth book of poems, X is also the map by which the poet marks new terrain. From the "vertigo of solitude" Galvin evokes a deep philosophical engagement with interior and exterior landscapes, asking simply, "What did I love that made me believe it would last?" The Nation has said, "James Galvin has a voice and a world, perhaps the two most difficult things to achicy in poetry." He also achieves a poetry in which nothing is wasted; what one reviewer has called a purely "American sound." Book jacket.