<div><p>"Young's <I>Bender</I> is a book of survival and strength, of seeing even in the smallest things the heights of what we can be. That's as good a definition of contemporary poetry as any."?NPR</p><p>"This book reads like a long, breathless thank you for life's seemingly random jumble of beauty, strangeness, tenderness, and joy."?<I>Los Angeles Times</I></p><p>"The reader's mind shoots through [Young's poems] like the steel ball in a pinball machine, dinging around, racking up points. Dean's poems are amazingly fun."?<I>BOMB</I></p><p><I>Bender</I> gathers the abundant treasure from Dean Young's twelve volumes. Strongly influenced by Surrealism, Young's poems flash with extravagant imagery, humorous speech, sly views of the quotidian, mercurial hip-shake shifts, and exposed nerves of heartache.</p><p><B>From "Commencement Address":</B></p><p><I>I love you for shattering.<BR>Someone has to. Just as someone<BR>has to announce inadvertently<BR>the end of grief or spring's<BR>splurge even as the bureaucrat's<BR>spittoon overflows. Someone has to come out<BR>the other end of the labyrinth<BR>saying, What's the big deal?<BR>Someone has to spend all day staring<BR>at the data from outer space<BR>or separating the receipts<BR>or changing the sheets in sour room after room.<BR>I like it when the end of the toilet paper<BR>is folded into a point.<BR>I like napkins folded into swans<BR>because I like wiping my mouth on swans?</I></p><p><B>Dean Young</B> has published twelve books of poetry, including finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and Griffin Award. He teaches at the University of Texas and lives in Austin.</p></div>