MY FATHER WAS A POET by Lester Graves Lennon is a ferocious, loving exploration of family, war and fear. His rhythms powerfully establish a poetry of uncompromising ground. "In Lester Graves Lennon"s new book personal history and national history become interwoven to remarkable effect. This is a collection of startling contradictions in which love and hate, peace and violence, light and dark not only clash but intermingle. Best of all, these poems feel alive--struggling, weeping, laughing, and loving--just like the vibrant characters they depict."--Dana Gioia "Although Lester Graves Lennon"s new collection frequently treats the terrors of contemporary life, his poems about his family and about the larger family of our republic affirm the possibility of social progress and intellectual enlightenment. As when reading Robert Frost, we feel reading Lennon that maybe we can increase--increment by fractional increment, generation by troubled generation, through love and the arts and sciences--our humanity and hold on the planet."--Timothy Steele