Waifs and Strays
Waifs and Strays recombines the allure, fixations, and diction of the Metaphysical poets with the alert and streetwise fracturing and instant amazements in contemporary San Francisco. Elegiac, elusive, evocative, the poems roam an urban landscape of bars, books, and chance encounters where the ghosts of Congo Square haunt the avenues of the Fillmore. Waifs and Strays is a rejection of all that is slick and disposable in 21st-century culture.
Born in Baton Rouge, Micah Ballard attended the Poetics program at New College of California, where he studied with David Meltzer, Joanne Kyger and Tom Clark. From 2000-07, he directed the Humanities program there and currently co-directs the MFA in Writing program at University of San Francisco. He co-edits Auguste Press and serves on the editorial board for New Orleans University Press.
