Last Words, the first book of poems by poet/translator Guy Bennett, is a collection of brief, densely metaphorical lyrics characterized by a tension of form, syntax and meaning. Using a collage technique described by Cage as "writing through" other writers (in this case, poets ranging from Stein to Guest, from Lorca to Mac Low), Guy Bennett fuses together a variety of poetic timbres and stylistic registers into a single lyric voice. The result is a suite of humorous, often enigmatic poems whose potential meanings lie somewhere in the linguistic, yet inevitably human space that separates the reader from the work.

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