Moon to my earth come from some other space
so totally white at our evening meal,
wearing a coat that will not last the year,
I love you completely as salt. —from
“Lying in Sadness”
James L. White’s The
Salt Ecstasies—originally published in 1982,
shortly after White’s untimely death—has earned a reputation for its artful and
explicit expression of love and desire. In this new edition, with an
introduction by Mark Doty and previously unpublished works by White, this invaluable
poetry is again available—clear, passionate, and hard-earned.
The Salt Ecstasies
is a new book in the Graywolf Poetry Re/View Series, edited by Mark Doty,
dedicated to bringing essential books of contemporary American poetry back into
print.
“White’s was a crucial voice
to encounter, for what it confirmed as possible—longing, homosexual longing,
the expression of that longing in a poem. I think it’s arguable that Dante’s Inferno is better literature, but Dante couldn’t have given me what
White did.”
—CARL PHILLIPS, from Coin of the Realm:
Essays on the Life and Art of Poetry
