Additional information
by Anselm Berrigan (Author)
The second installment of the City Lights Spotlight poetry series, Free Cell is the latest collection from Anselm Berrigan, one of the most significant American poets under 40. Consisting of two experimental suites--Have a Good One and To Hell with Sleep--connected by the central poem Let Us Sample Protection Together, Free Cell is Berrigan's most ambitious work to date, a spiritual autobiography wrapped in an exploration of form. His work combines the freneticism of his New York environment with oblique humor, political angst, and a reflective, lyrical interrogation of his own subjectivity: For my part it's / been an honor / to be at someone's / service, though doing / so has diminished / my expiration date / and my astral self- / projection has already / fled in bitter tears / having used up even addiction.
Author Biography
Anselm Berrigan's most recent book is Some Notes on My Programming. The poetry editor of The Brooklyn Rail, co-editor with Alice Notley and Edmund Berrigan of The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan (2005, UCal Press) and former Director of St. Marks Poetry Project, Berrigan teaches at Pratt Institute and Wesleyan, and the Milton Avery Graduate School.
