Lee Rossi was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in another century. He studied 5 years for the Roman Catholic priesthood before leaving the seminary, and devoting himself to the study of failure. He draws inspiration from poets living and dead, and in the past twenty years has met as many fine and superfine not yet dead poets as he can. His ultimate concerns as a poet can best be gauged by an excerpt from a interview with the posthumous German poet Rainer Maria Rilke:Rossi: Angels and art are all well and good, but what about an age like this one that only cares about self-aggrandizement?Rilke: Only after the Self has been abraded by Ridicule and Catastrophe can it approach the Truly Momentous. Rossi is the author of four books of poetry, Darwin’s Garden (Moon Tide Press, 2019), Wheelchair Samurai (Plainview Press, 2011), Ghost Diary (Terrapin Press, 2003) and Beyond Rescue (Bombshelter Press, 1992), and has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Don’t Leave Hungry: 50 Years of Southern Poetry Review (University of Arkansas Press, 2010), Blue Arc West (Tebot Bach, 2006), Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005), Mischief, Caprice, & Other Strategies (Red Hen Press, 2002) and Grand Passion: the Poetry of Los Angeles and Beyond (Red Wind Books, 1995). His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Harvard Review, Poetry Northwest, The North American Review, Main Street Rag, Tar River Poetry, The Spoon River Poetry Review, The Southeast Review, The Atlanta Review, The Green Mountains Review, The Sun, Poetry East, Chelsea, The Wormwood Review, Nimrod, Beloit Poetry Journal, Poet Lore, The Southern Poetry Review, The Southern Indian Review, Poetry/LA, Onthebus and others. His has published reviews in ~88~, Poetry International, Smartish Pace, Poetry Flash, The Los Angeles Review, and the online journal Pedestal. He is a winner of the Sense of Site poetry contest sponsored by the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and The Jack Grapes Poetry Prize. From 1986 to 1992, he edited Tsunami, a journal of contemporary poetry focused on Los Angeles. He is a member of the Northern California Book Reviewers and a Contributing Editor for Poetry Flash.Read more about this authorRead less about this author