Lusions (Grove Press Poetry Series)

In Lusions, the internationally acclaimed poet James Ragan casts his eye on modern and ancient history in poems that put an original spin on the progression of the world. These are lyrical and witty poems about change and cultural evolution from an intellectual and insightful mind. Ragan explores humankind's cultural and mythical identities - from Prehistory, in which he muses on the "Birth of God (from an Early Photograph)" and "The Pebble Culture," when our distant ancestors turned "violence into culture," to the New World, where he covers such topics as Tuzla, the inner city, and the construction of a city mall. Once he catches up to the Premillennium, Ragan's poems are overwhelmed by a return to nature, perhaps the only antidote to our electronic age. Through brilliant wordplay and striking images, Lusions invents a mysterious and imaginative discourse on the point where the past and the present meet and the impact they have on a fragmented culture.