Fall Higher

Fall Higher is Dean Young's twelfth collection of poetry, published in 2011. The book contains 45 poems that range from surreal meditations to personal narratives. The poems move between themes of mortality, romance, and artistic creation. Young wrote many of these pieces while dealing with heart failure and awaiting a transplant, though the collection maintains his characteristic wit and wordplay. The work experiments with form and structure, incorporating both free verse and more traditional poetic elements. References to art history, pop culture, and mythology appear throughout the collection. The poems in Fall Higher explore the tension between chaos and order, examining how humans create meaning in an unpredictable world. Through surprising juxtapositions and imaginative leaps, Young confronts mortality while celebrating life's essential strangeness.

Readers describe Fall Higher as playful and experimental poetry that balances humor with profound observations. According to online reviews, the collection stands out for its unpredictable metaphors and surreal imagery. Readers appreciated: - Young's ability to blend everyday experiences with philosophical musings - The energy and momentum of the poems - Unexpected word combinations and linguistic creativity "Like watching fireworks in broad daylight" - Goodreads reviewer "Makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar" - Amazon review Common criticisms: - Some poems feel scattered or unfocused - Metaphors can become too abstract - Language sometimes prioritizes style over meaning Ratings: Goodreads: 4.1/5 (289 ratings) Amazon: 4.5/5 (12 ratings) Poetry Foundation readers gave positive feedback on the book's accessibility despite its experimental nature, with particular praise for poems like "Passenger" and "Lives of the Mortals."

Selected Poems by Frank O'Hara A collection of surreal, urban poems that blend personal observation with cultural commentary through unexpected juxtapositions and leaps in logic.

Sleeping with the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen The poems employ wordplay, puns, and linguistic experimentation to explore language's relationship with identity and meaning.

Strike Sparks by Sharon Olds These poems examine the body, relationships, and mortality with raw physicality and unconventional imagery.

Actual Air by David Berman The collection combines everyday observations with philosophical insights through associative logic and surprising metaphors.

The Captain Lands in Paradise by Sarah Manguso Short, fragment-like poems create meaning through discontinuity and challenge traditional narrative expectations.

🌟 "Fall Higher" was published in 2011, shortly before Dean Young underwent a life-saving heart transplant surgery. 🎨 Many poems in the collection explore mortality and fragility while maintaining Young's signature surrealist style and dark humor. 📚 The book's title comes from a phrase by Rilke, reflecting Young's interest in both falling and transcendence as poetic themes. 🏆 Dean Young has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. 🎓 Young composed several poems in this collection while serving as the William Livingston Chair of Poetry at the University of Texas-Austin, where he continues to teach creative writing.