Keep This Forever (2008)

A new collection by Mark Halliday is always reason for excitement; his direct, conversational verse is, yes, that poetry comfort-word — accessible — but also wise about the modern world, and frequently very funny. Keep This Forever also makes room for one of the gravest of milestones; it includes a moving sequence of poems about the death of Halliday’s father (''Everybody's father dies./...But when my father died, it was my father.''). A modern romantic poet, Halliday is wittily alert to our social interactions, whether he's making poetry out of everyday cell-phone chatter and business jargon, or describing a tedious, niceties-filled evening at a social-obligation party with a doleful deadpan: ''...I was standing/with a cup of wine and trying to have on my face/the I'm-so-interested look...'' A-