You.: A Life in Essays

YOU. In verse that is both wild and taut with controlled fire, YOU. careens through a psychic underworld of passion and imprecation where husband and wife, father and daughter, addict and rehab, self and God, join and divide. Joseph Wood's book-length screed haunts like a Rilkean summons: YOU. must change your life.
You were every disease I
never knew. You were each collapsing cell.
You were the microscope, the telescope,
the reasons why I fell into your arms, baby,
like a problem. Math explains the universe . . .
Joseph P. Wood has written nine works of poetry, including Broken Cage, finalist for the 2013 National Poetry Series. He teaches English at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.