Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology is a book of poetry written by Albert Goldbarth and released in 1991. The work was a critical success, and Goldbarth was awarded the National Books Critic Award the same year. 10 years later he would repeat this success with his book Saving Lives.
Goldbarth was born in 1948 and went to the University of Illinois, where he graduated with a BA in 1979. He then studied at the University of Iowa where he received an MFA in 1971. He published his first poetry collection, Coprolites, two years later. His early works established the style that would characterize his career. His style is dense and sprawling. His vocabulary is vast. His work probes both the philosophical and the quotidian. He draws from academic and historical content in the crafting of his subject matter. He also writes frankly and openly about homosexuality, homoeroticism, and fetishism.
Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology would feature all of these aforementioned traits, while also turning to more personal terrain. The work is a contemplation and memorialization of Goldbarth's heritage. He writes of his father and his German ancestors. Yet, like all of Goldbarth's works, he cannot focus on a single topic. Instead he jumps from subject to subject like frogs on a lilypad. He pontificates upon the painting of Rembrandt, Ancient Egyptian spirituality, and choirs of angels. The work is maximalist and esoteric, meriting both bewilderment and praise.
Goldbarth still continues to write, and until early in 2018, teach at the Wichita State University in Kansas. A collection of essays, The Adventures of Form and Content: Essays, was released in 2017.
