Heroic Measures

David Bergman

“Some of the best AIDS literature of any kind, [the poems] introduce characters who come alive and tell stories, not all directly about AIDS, that bring the poet and his anxieties to life, too. . . . Poem after poem is fluent, intelligent, well shaped, and memorable.” —Booklist

“Bergman is a poet wholly original; he speaks of matters like male desire and AIDS, which are not spoken of nearly as often enough in poetry these days, and he reminds us—through the grace of form which can be achieved by a poet who is able by means of technical exigencies to produce an unforced beauty—of the history and tradition of English and American poetry.” —David Citino, author of Broken Symmetry

“Here’s the voice of Mozart’s canary, a psychic in crisis, a naturalist stunned by another species more beautiful—and more human?—than our own. Here are poems of friendship and travel, the ravages of the epidemic, love and fear for aging parents, an elegy for the handsomest of hairdressers. David Bergman’s compassionate book gives shape to the occasions of a life.” —Mark Doty, author of My Alexandria: Poems

David Bergman’s new collection, Heroic Measures, opens with a section of poems that speak directly of male relationships and desire. A second grouping depicts images of art, giving us glimpses of Goya, Eakins, Mozart, and Mapplethorpe. Other poems provide an enlightening journey into religion and myth. In the final section, Bergman turns to his family with poems about his parents, their aging, and his childhood. The result of this structure is to show the course of a life as a progression backward and forward, the journeying, the false starts and successes of the pursuit of love and the practice of art set against the dangers and strictures of the past and present.

David Bergman is a professor of English at Towson University. He won the George Elliston Poetry Prize for his first volume, Cracking the Code. He is also the author of Gaiety Transformed: Self-Representation in Gay American Literature, which was cited as an Outstanding Book of the Year by both Choice and the Gustavus Myers Center for Human Rights.