"The Intelligence of Clouds" is Stanley Moss' third collection of poems. 'We must be grateful to the Anvil Press for importing Stanley Moss', wrote John Fuller of his first, "The Wrong Angel" (1969). Reviewing "Skull of Adam" (1979) in the "Poetry Review", John Mole found impressive 'the success with which Moss coaxes his theme of the infinite preciousness of life close to death from small, domestic details...It is hard to give an adequate impression of Moss' twin gifts of wit and lyricism by extracting. They are inseparable'.

The Intelligence of Clouds: Poems

Moss, Stanley

Harcourt, Brace. Jovanovich

"The Intelligence of Clouds" is Stanley Moss' third collection of poems. 'We must be grateful to the Anvil Press for importing Stanley Moss', wrote John Fuller of his first, "The Wrong Angel" (1969). Reviewing "Skull of Adam" (1979) in the "Poetry Review", John Mole found impressive 'the success with which Moss coaxes his theme of the infinite preciousness of life close to death from small, domestic details...It is hard to give an adequate impression of Moss' twin gifts of wit and lyricism by extracting. They are inseparable'.

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Harcourt

The Intelligence of Clouds

Anvil

Many tensions are at work in the playfully unconstrained poems of Stanley Moss: ordinary and mythical lives, the political and the personal, high art and low comedy intermingle, achieving an effect that is often surreal and always striking. Here God and Death are not matters for detached speculation but constant and vivid presences, whether centre-stage or waiting in the wings. An engagement with history is brought to bear on legend and on current affairs: a poem addressing 9/11 summons up the figure of Walt Whitman, whose exuberance and resolute faith in humanity Moss echoes throughout the book. Serious and optimistic, light and dark, Songs of Imperfection is an uplifting and celebratory book. Stanley Moss was born in New York City. He was educated at Trinity College and Yale University. He makes his living as a private art dealer, largely in Spanish and Italian old masters, and is the publisher and editor of The Sheep Meadow Press, a non-profit press devoted to poetry.

Songs of Imperfection

Anvil Press Poetry

"Stanley Moss is American poetry's best-kept secret, better known as the innovative publisher of other poets than for his own highly charged, stingingly beautiful lyrics. That should change with the publication of his long-awaited and gorgeous new poems. "—John Ashbery "Again and again, coming upon a poem of Stanley Moss', I have had the feeling of being taken by surprise. Not simply by the eloquence or the direct authenticity of the language, for I had come to expect those in his poems. The surprise arose from the nature of his poetry itself, and from the mystery that his poems confront and embody, which makes them both intense and memorable. "—W. S. Merwin Rejoicing’ is a magnificent, celebratory gathering of Stanley Moss’s poetry from six decades. He is one of America’s finest poets and this collection demonstrates why. Marilyn Hacker wrote of his work, "Its verbal generosity and bravura, its humanity, the quality and quantity of information which it integrates into poetry of the highest order make it a continuing delight", and in Britain John Fuller wrote: "Stanley Moss’s poems are fresh and unpredictable, full of colour and wisdom. As a poetry that engages the philosophical mind it seems characteristically American in its scope and cultural engagement, but there is also the generous warmth of a mind at ease in its body, open to surprises and possibilities." Stanley Moss was born in 1925. He is the author of several collections of poetry, and is the editor and publisher of The Sheep Meadow Press, a non-profit press devoted to poetry. He makes his living as a dealer in old master paintings, and lives in Riverdale-on-Hudson, New York.

Rejoicing

This first book of poems was originally published in New York in 1966.

The Wrong Angel

Few poets today, even very good ones, write lines, as Stanley Moss does, that are so exquisitely crafted you cannot help but remember them. "What is heaven but the history of color," begins the new long poem after which this book is named. "We know at ninety sometimes it aches to sing," begins another poem, for a woman upon her ninetieth birthday. In the hands of this master, "Ah who art in heaven," transmigrates to the quieting "ah, ah, baby." And here is Moss in an early poem: "I’ve always had a preference / for politics you could sing / on the stage of the Scala," ending that poem with words attributed to Lincoln: "I don’t know what the soul is, / but whatever it is, I know it can humble itself." A History of Color: New and Collected Poems by Stanley Moss is the first one-volume, complete edition of the poetry of this important living American poet. A History of Color proposes poetry that is made to be useful. Moss is our leading psalmist. Metaphors for wonder abound, his language one of sorrow and exaltation.

A History of Color: New and Selected Poems

History & Criticism

Seven Stories Press

With nearly seventy-five new poems and over two hundred selected from his previous books, God Breaketh Not All Men’s Hearts Alike is the book of a lifetime in poetry, one that will lead to the author being recognized as among American’s best living poets. A work of intense illumination, these poems investigate meanings and subjects usually left in darkness. A dramatic excitement, a surprising beauty, a song draws us from poem to poem. It has been pointed out by Hayden Carruth that "in many voices, in lines rugged yet eloquent with various learnings, Moss sings us his disconcerting and extraordinarily moving songs of unbelievable belief."

God Breaketh Not All Men's Hearts Alike: New & Later Collected Poems

Arts & Photography

WINNER OF THE 2016 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FOR POETRY Moss is oceanic: his poems rise, crest, crash, and rise again like waves. His voice echoes the boom of the Old Testament, the fluty trill of Greek mythology, and the gongs of Chinese rituals as he writes about love, nature, war, oppression, and the miracle of language. He addresses the God of the Jews, of the Christians, and of the Muslims with awe and familiarity, and chants to lesser gods of his own invention. In every surprising poem, every song to life, beautiful life, Moss, by turns giddy and sorrowful, expresses a sacred sensuality and an earthy holiness. Or putting it another way: here is a mind operating in open air, unimpeded by fashion or forced thematic focus, profoundly catholic in perspective, at once accessible and erudite, inevitably compelling. All of which is to recommend Moss's ability to participate in and control thoroughly these poems while resisting the impulse to center himself in them. This differentiates his beautiful work from much contemporary breast-beating. Moss is an artist who embraces the possibilities of exultation, appreciation, reconciliation, of extreme tenderness. As such he lays down a commitment to a common, worldly morality toward which all beings gravitate.

Almost Complete Poems

"Death is a many-colored harlequin," asserts Stanley Moss on his 92nd birthday. Undaunted, outrageously alive, Moss in these Abandoned Poems flaunts more colors than the Grim Reaper ever dreamed of, laughs in his face, rhymes with abandon, makes a joyful noise unto the Lord, and struts with Baudelaire. This is a book to hold onto for dear life. --Rosanna Warren Magisterial. . . Abandoned Poems is magnificent. I've read it several times with greater and greater pleasure. Its verbal generosity and bravura, its humanity, the quality and quantity of information which it integrates into poetry of the highest order make it a continuing delight. --Marilyn Hacker

Abandoned Poems

Genre Fiction

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Moss, Stanley. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Moss, Stanley

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Moss, Stanley. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Intelligence of Clouds: Poems

The Intelligence of Clouds: Poems

The Intelligence of Clouds

Songs of Imperfection

Rejoicing

The Wrong Angel

A History of Color: New and Selected Poems

God Breaketh Not All Men's Hearts Alike: New & Later Collected Poems

Almost Complete Poems

Abandoned Poems