Robin Behn called Mark Neely’s first collection “nothing less than a mandala of the human spirit.” Now, in Dirty Bomb, his formidable talents take on a wider and more public dimension.

This book of poems explores life in 21st-century America, particularly the juxtaposition of intimate human relationships with the politics and violence of U.S. militarism, terrorism, and the threat of environmental apocalypse. Oil tankers leak, atrocities play out across the internet, “the present / always drags the past into the future.” Yet Neely’s piercing intelligence and dry wit keep the poems light on their feet and unexpected in their perceptions. Angry, baffled, moon-drunk, and visionary, these poems chart the promise and the danger of America in fresh and memorable ways.