To the Center of the Earth is Michael Fried's first collection of poems to appear in the United States. It includes selections from an earlier volume, Powers, as well as more recent work. For all their economy, Fried's "muscular, tense and immensely resonant" poems, to quote one critic, are among the most sensuously direct and arresting being written today.
"These poems are mostly short and sometimes epigrammatic. With work of such brevity, one expects, and is rewarded with, strong lines and crisp, sharp images. . . . Highly recommended."
