At the Foundling Hospital: Poems

Pinsky is America's most mature and wise poet, writing in and out of many kinds of poetic forms, but always with a quotidian sense of the universal. I took his Boston University online course--best I have yet experienced. I recommend it, if it is provided again. Many of the poems in this book look back on his New York youth and they are expressed, often in the language of the immigrant.

Starting with the quote from Greek poet Pindar “What is Someone? ” Pinsky goes on to explore identity and history in a curious mix of poems. For example in Mixed Chorus “ My father was a Roman slave who gained his freedom …My other name is Flaccus. I wrote and essay/ On the theme You Choose your Ancestors” The first line of Foundling Tokens gives the collection its title “At the Foundling Hospital/ For each abandoned/ Baby a duly recorded token”? .. and later “On the slave passage some Africans/ Inscribed their names in to the hull” Two of my favorite are Genesis and Genesis According to the Sculptor George Segal… “What are we waiting for? The hour glass/ That measures all our time is trickling dust/ Is also of dust and will return to dust –“

This is a marvelous book that deserves a much wider audience.

beautiful book