Michael Lassell is a master of the necessary word. In an age of tepid and whining verse, his bawdy and bittersweet songs are like a plunge into cold champagne. -- Paul MonetteMichael Lassell's last book of poems was hailed as a defining work of the '80s and brought critical comparison to Wait Whitman and John Rechy. This new collection of poems continues his exploration of urban gay life in the waning years of the 20th century. Lassell's Flame -- both incendiary and memorial -- casts an introspective, increasingly disciplined but often playful shadow. Still a dedicated denizen of the city of night, Lassel is making peace with his family history, the deaths of too many friends, and his own mortality in a community increasingly obsessed with youth and beauty.