Hell, I Love Everybody: The Essential James Tate: Poems (Ecco Essentials)

James Tate is the unrivaled master American surrealist poetry, and much more. The subjects of his poems are often not what he's actually writing about; instead they are doggrels and dithyrambs that honor the imagination, elevating its ability to sustain disbelief until it is belief; untruth until it is truth; horror until it is beauty; grief until it becomes love; and doubt until it is humor. I was a student of Jim's in years past, and his literary wisdom still brings me revelations, as do his lovely enduring poems. Enjoy this wonderful book.

I had the opportunity to get to know Tate when I lived in Amherst, Mass. He was a quirky, funny man and a very gifted writer. I prefer his prose a bit more to his poetry, but this slim volume acts as an excellent introduction to his work. The poems certainly reflect the author's sensibilities; the common becomes strange, the strange is transformed into the knowable, and some things are merely as described. I certainly miss his company.

Nice collection of Tate’s most popular poems. Tate was a brilliant mind and hilarious poet of the poignant and surreal.