In ‘New and Selected Poems’, readers will find a real master craftsman at work. His language is conservative and seems simple at first, but when the poem blossoms we are all the more surprised and excited because of it. This book is a gem to read and contains a story, making it as hard to put down as your favorite novel. Philip Levine works on so many levels and can be enjoyed by anyone. He is one of America’s great narrative poets. His plainspoken lyricism has, for half a century, championed the art of telling ‘The Simple Truth’—about working in a Detroit auto factory, as he has, and about the hard work we do to make sense of our lives. As he does so, however -- in language of the utmost simplicity and clarity -- these poems often take on an incantatory, almost prayerlike, intensity. It is as though the effort is to overcome the inadequacies of language through its sheer rhythmic and musical power -- a kind of primal power to enthrall, to entrance. Levine’s poetry will be remembered for his giving voice to the complicated lives of men and women and for making something closer to simple song than ordinary speech.