Days We Would Rather Know
by Michael Blumenthal
Poems reflecting on memory, time, and human experience
Poetry. Originally published by Viking-Penguin and sold out in both of its original printings, was one of the most admired, and most influential, books of American poetry of the 1980’s, and marked the auspicious continuation of one of the decade’s most promising debuts. DAYS WE WOULD RATHER KNOW suggests that we are as fulfilled, as animated, by our longings as by the resolution of those wishes.
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"One of the natural poets of his generation."
— Seamus Heaney, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
"Michael Blumenthal's second collection of poems… adds a buoyant and odd new presence to contemporary American poetry… These are a young man's poems, dizzy with discovering that something can be affirmed, that the world can be loved."
— Helen Vendler, The New Republic
"Michael Blumenthal, in his second book of poems, pursues happiness with a passion… This is extremely confident and competent work. Blumenthal bears watching."
— The Hudson Review
"Blumenthal's collection and transformations are nothing if not intriguing and often magical. For all his obvious intelligence, though, what gives these poems life is the author's passionate commitment (with frequent erotic undertones) and evident delight in the things of this world… a most impressive performance."
— ALA Booklist
"Blumenthal is delighted to be alive. With an abundant measure of wit and good nature, and with a surprising generosity, he offers us that delight in poem after poem."
— Millard Dunn, The Louisville Courier-Journal