Lure, by Nils Michals

Selected by Judy Jordan as Winner of the 2004 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize "Nils Michals has a marvelous knack for putting unexpected words in unexpected places—and for composing whole poems of such surprises. In these dense, rich lyric poems, he touches a wide range from the mythical to the quotidian with the same gleamingly precise sensibility. This is a striking collection that's not afraid of beauty or emotion—nor of the difficulties they have always presented to poetry." —Cole Swensen