About The Book

O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound is the first poetry collection written by Garrison Keillor, the celebrated radio host of A Prairie Home Companion. Although he has edited several anthologies of his favorite poems, this volume forges a new path for him, as a poet of light verse. He writes—with his characteristic combination of humor and insight—on love, modernity, nostalgia, politics, religion, and other facets of daily life. Keillor’s verses are charming and playful, locating sublime song within the humdrum of being human.

Praise

“Keillor is very clearly a genius. His range and stamina alone are incredible . . . he has the genuine wisdom of a Cosby or Mark Twain.” —Slate

“America’s foremost humorist and social pundit . . . Keillor’s running commentary about the human condition has the uncanny ability to home in on the pulse of America.” —PBS

“Keillor has a way of reconciling seeming contradictions. A purveyor of all things folksy and down-home, he is a highly cultivated, worldly man.” —AARP

Excerpt

WHY I LIVE IN MINNESOTA

Where the temp gets down to thirty below

And it’s perfectly flat, miles of snow,

And you ask why I live in this desolate spot.

Because you do not.

You in loud clothes

With very big hair

And very big pickups

And not much upstairs,

Who whoop in church

And handle snakes

To prove their faith

For goodness sakes.

They slur their speech

Down in the South

As if they had cotton balls

Stuffed in their mouth.

The men hunt gators

Out in the marsh,

While the women stay home

And hang up the warsh

And tend to the babies,

And fix gator stew.

Now what if these people

Lived next door to you?

And the only thing

That keeps them away

Is the fact it will hit

Minus thirty today?

Winter’s a challenge

But it can be faced

When you’re among people

With brains and good taste.