Nicholas Christopher has been praised as one of America's most important poets by such literary talents as John Ashbery, Charles Simic, James Merrill, and Anthony Hecht. Crossing the Equator collects Christopher's best work from the past three decades and includes a section of new poems that are among his finest.Cold missiles and a rainof embers accompany the menwho slide like shadows into the cityfaces mud-smearedstones for teeth no eyeswho slit the throats of everyonethey encounter until breaking downmy door they drag me into the darknessthat floods the corridorand lock me in an icy chamber -from "THE LAST HOURS OF LAÓDIKÊ, SISTER OF HEKTOR"
