News of the World

Sunlight interleaves
the tree out back,
it makes new sense.
Chickadees and waxwings
are into the hawthorn
after its insects.

Some are upside-down
eating ripe haws,
you should watch
a bird get drunk,
someone should know
such things happen.

Referencing the Ezra Pound dictum that “poetry is news that stays news,” Irv Huck offers News of the World. A former student of Theodore Roethke, Huck has quietly sustained a small and steady output of poetry over many years. News of the World is a selection from his best work. The poems are attentive to tone, yet resonate with ceremony. A gallant and refined lyricism gives them a deceptive simplicity. For those familiar with Irv Huck’s life-long dedication to poetry, music and dance, this book is long awaited and much appreciated.

‘This collection of poems tells us what is behind emotion. The news of the world reaches us through the brilliant perception of a man who presents us with what there is, not with what there should be. In Huck's fresh and crisp lines the truth of living converges with truth about nature and creates a powerful impression of an examined life.’~ Selim S. Kuru, Associate Professor, Ottoman and Turkish studies, University of Washington, Seattle

Irv Huck was born in Chicago. He received his BA in English from the University of Illinois and studied under Theodore Roethke at the University of Washington. After receiving an MA in English literature Irv taught in the English faculty at Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Washington. and has spent many years as the class accompanist at Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle. This is his first book.