Hurt Thyself: Volume 17

Between The Sexes What is the chance she smiles on this rivalry declared in the unspoken as chivalry, even one glance shot in the glass, while ahead he waits holding the door half-open, half-closed. Andrew Steinmetz's second collection of poetry turns a clinical eye on his favourite subjects - love, marriage, power, fantasy, and art. At the crossroads of the credos "know thyself" and "heal thyself," Steinmetz adopts a "hurt thyself" attitude that is sardonic and compassionate. Using a tersely sensitive language that relies on the poet's own speaking voice, Hurt Thyself betrays a slightly ominous and skewed philosophical rigor. The implications of the poet's examined life are poems that feel emotionally exposed yet discriminating and sceptical.