That Kind of Happy

"Happiness,” Jonathan Swift wrote, "is the quality of being well-deceived.” In this long-awaited second collection, Maggie Dietz investigates our sometimes near-sighted notions of happiness, interweaving loss and motherhood, the death of a parent, and the persistence of hope, in poems that are characteristically sharp-eyed, varied, and evocative. Her first book published in the series did unusually well, with positive reviews in prominent publications. In this new collection, Dietz does what Phoenix Poets poets do best: write beautiful poems on difficult subjects, looking head-on at problems and situations that a clever turn in a poetic line won’t necessarily solve. The book is, in the words of one of our readers, "a bracing, various pleasure to read.”