Daffodil

And Other Poems

By: Vincent Katz

Narrated by: Vincent Katz

Stopping time on the page to discover the poetic moment where past and present are one, Vincent Katz (called a poet of “vibrant cinematic hunger” by Eileen Myles) opens himself to the fleeting beauty of both culture and nature in this stunning gathering of new work.

With his painterly eye and disarming concision on the page, Katz opens this book with a powerful image of “all time sequestered in the fold of a daffodil,” setting the stage for an encounter with the immediacy we must embrace to see the world around us with clarity. At the center of this collection are his captivating poems about animals—“The hope in fear / In thrill to run” of the rabbit, the snapping turtle “nestled // Next to brother rock”—as the poems continually engage with the heady passage of days and years, and the promise to honor a life in the here and now, to walk the street with the sense that, “It’s not about buying / But rather about feeling the air.”

“Whether in nature, or on a crowded or empty city street, was all a dream?” Katz writes, considering Daffodil. “Surely, there was and is still someone close, and that continues, as animals, despite war, despite incursions, continue. New York is a place of return, where we’re aware of faces and other things; there, or in a field of flowers, in places in the distant past and present, love has some inexorable way of continuing.”

These poems evoke the exact scenes that command our daily thoughts, that usher in grace and beauty, with their quietly urgent moral qualities, which, Katz suggests, can shape our days if we allow them to.

Critic reviews

Praise for Daffodil:
"Katz revels in the quotidian. . . . I could quote from [his] new book ad infinitum for the sheer pleasure of hearing the hard-won simplicity of the verses. . . . The declarative nature of these lyrical verses. . . provokes an often-arresting complex of thoughts. . . . The logic or impetus of the poem becomes inseparable from the cityscape and, in turn, with the lives of those who inhabit the place and poem. . . . Most telling for me is the conviction of the poet’s vision, a mature insistence on his subject enabling the poet to risk it all with the brevity of his compositions." —Paul Vangelisti, The Brooklyn Rail

Praise for Vincent Katz:
“In the curious timelessness of time, this writing makes a golden space of thought and echo.” — Robert Creeley

“His vision is generous and panoramic . . . his style a combination of classical elegance and casual grace.” —Elaine Equi

“A tremendous amount of energy is required to embrace New York as ardently as these poems do.” — Susan Timmons, Poetry Project Newsletter

“Vincent Katz is a rare kind of contemporary poet in being an expert guide to pleasure.”
—Kenneth Koch

“A voice in the grand tradition of New York poetry, from Walt Whitman to Frank O’Hara.” —Paul Vangelisti, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Katz balances narration and intuition, and juxtaposes the outspoken with the lyrical to usher the reader into the speaker’s journey.” — Elizabeth Forsythe, Columbia Poetry Review

“Stripped of rococo embellishment or flowery pretense, [Katz’s poems] stand as testimony to keen observance and thoughtful assessment.” —Greg Masters, Sensitive Skin

“Remarkable. . . . Lucid, succinct, and fluent.” —Rochak Agarwal, Pegasus Literary