It’s about time the reading public and the poetry world discovered Tom Krampf’s poetry. He is more attuned to the subtleties of mind and heart than most. His compassion is rare, and his ear for the music that binds word to word in a poem is unfailing. His Selected Poems is probing, courageous, and open-hearted. Margaret Gibson, Lamont Poetry Selection; Finalist, National Book Award
In his major poem ‘A Prayer to the Subway’, Thomas Krampf says, in a simple but ramifying line, “Sometimes I was never sure I was going to make it home.” Well, he has. This Selected Poems is his life’s habitation, the body and soul work that, in the end, has saved him, has enabled him to place himself despite the agonies of fear and love and madness, has enabled him to “step over the platform’s clashing teeth.” Archibald MacLeish asked from the poet, above all else, wholeness, and this wild and strong book will remain capacious and revelatory.” William Heyen, National Book Award Finalist for Shoah Train
For more than thirty-five years I have deeply admired the ecstatic trajectory of Thomas Krampf’s poems. He is the sagely-deranged post-millennial brother of Blake and Whitman, honoring Pound’s demand that poetry=condensation, yet always remaining master of the drawn-out, singing line. From his rural mountainous retreat, Krampf persists in sending down lyrics to remind the rest of us exactly how lucky we are to be alive in this fractured, beautiful world.” Neil Baldwin, author of To All Gentleness: William Carlos Williams, The Doctor-Poet
