All at Once: Prose Poems

A collection of prose poems, short stories, and personal essays by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C. K. Williams. The pieces are brief, sharp reflections on both profound and everyday subjects. Williams is known for experimenting with poetic form, particularly his use of long, lyrical lines. In All at Once, he continues this approach, creating new formal and lyrical inventions. The musings blend personal observation with wit and invention, featuring vivid imagery—such as a neighbor's white butane tank described as glaring "raw and unseemly, like a breast inappropriately unclothed in the painful chill." The collection includes character sketches of people Williams has encountered, such as a sign painter and skid-row resident whose intensity impressed the young poet, and tender passages about his wife, including observations about her laughter, which "always has something keen and sweet to it, an edge of something like song." The collection evokes pathos and thought while inspiring sympathy and contemplation. It represents both a continuation of Williams's established style and a departure from his previous work.