Hometown and Other Poems

Divided into fifty-five sections, ‘Hometown’ is an extraordinary work in the long tradition of the Great American Poem. The author’s own compositions, interspersed with quotations from other famous writers and excerpts from historical documents and articles, including an old restaurant bill, create a living tapestry of the city of Denver from its pre-colonial days to its foundation and beyond, woven together by the poet’s unifying gaze and psychedelic imagination.

Thirty years in the making, ‘Hometown’ was left unpublished at the death of its author, who regarded it as his most important work. Published here for the first time, alongside the rest of his poetry, including some uncollected pieces, this poem will restore Lyman Andrews’s place among the great American poets of the twentieth century.