The Last Decade : Seagrove Press : 9780989560979 : 098956097X : 07 Feb 2017 : The Last Decade is the culminating masterwork of this celebrated and gifted poet who was Brooklyn's first Poet Laureate. The diversity in subject matter and style is a tribute to Norman Rosten's earned command of the poetic vocabulary. In describing The Last Decade, Norman called the "Elegy: For Hedda" sequence, "the center of the poems." It is the emotional pivot point and contains his wrenching exploration of the intimate bonds that continue to link Norman and his wife, Hedda, after her death. "Elegy" documents his painful struggle to build a life again. The earthly fabric of their symbiotic relationship is torn apart and yet a new spiritual connection begins to form between them. "The Wound" stuns the reader in its visceral detailing of the affair between the older poet and his new lover. The knife-edge, carnal hunger exposed in these poems reveals a love that is a composite of all the fervid emotions that