How Chet Baker Died: Poems

Poems from the acclaimed author of Roy’s World, Wild at Heart, and many other works


The first words in Barry Gifford’s new poetry collection say it all—“Here I am wasting time again / writing poems to keep myself company” — doing what he has ever done, surprising his readers in kaleidoscopic prisms of color, turning every breath into a story, and himself into his most colorful character.

She stood and walked across the lawn
past the cottage and into the big house.
He stayed to watch the last ...