A collection of poetry organized in two sections. The first section, "Versed," play with vice and versa, the perversity of human consciousness. They flirt with error and delusion, skating on a thin ice that inevitably cracks. The second section, "Dark Matter," alludes to more than the unseen substance thought to make up the majority of mass in the universe. The invisible and unknowable are confronted directly as the author's experience with cancer marks these poems with a new austerity, shot through with her signature wit and stark unsentimental thinking.--From publisher description.

Rae Armantrout's poetry comprises one of the most refined and visionary bodies of work written over the last forty years. These potent, compact meditations on our complicated times reveal her observant sensibility, lively intellect, and emotional complexity. This generous volume charts the evolution of Armantrout's mature, stylistically distinct work. In addition to 25 new poems, there are selections from her books Up To Speed, Next Life, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winning volume Versed, Money Shot, Just Saying, and Itself. Including some of her most brilliant pieces, Partly affirms Armantrout's reputation as one of our sharpest and most innovative writers.