The classical formal sensibility of Larry Johnson"s ALLOY is no indicator of antiquated, old-fashioned verse; these poems are utterly contemporary in their strong, sharp language, and timeless in the themes they evoke. "John Donne showed how one could be passionate, erudite, witty, sardonic, heartbreaking and profound all at the same time, and in elegant muscular verse. This Johnson does too, in his more somber mode. These poems show us how the past is, after all, the hottest and edgiest new thing."--Frederick Turner "Few poets have made so deft a use of history in their work as has Larry Johnson. One thinks of Browning, Cavafy, or Pound. Though we may not learn from history"s horrors, we are drawn to reading about them. Johnson"s historical eye can reach back millennial distances or to those of only a few decades ago-to the death of Mishima, for example, who in the quirks of Johnson"s brilliant mind returns-both seriously and humorously-as Godzilla. Unlike so much contemporary...