I Vote For Curvy Language

Here's the promotional copy for Li-Young Lee's forthcoming book, Behind My Eyes:

"Combining sensitivity and eloquence with a broad appeal, Li-Young Lee walks in the footsteps of Stanley Kunitz and Billy Collins as one of the United States' most beloved poets. Playful, erotic, at times mysterious, his work describes the immanent value of everyday experience. Straightforward language and simple narratives become gateways to the most powerful formulations of beauty, wisdom, and divine love."

This disturbs me. Lee walks in the footsteps of Billy Collins? Listen, I think Collins is enjoyable to read sometimes, but he's very different from Lee, to put it mildly. Maybe this means that, in the new book, Lee is moving closer to Collins's style? If so, given the work Lee was doing in Book of My Nights, such a shift has to be considered a huge step backward.

I'm hoping that this is simply the work of W.W. Norton's copy writers (Lee has moved from BOA to Norton). I'm hoping that this accounts for the emphasis on "straightforward language and simple narratives." Maybe Lee's usual mystical explanations of poetry don't make for effective advertising. And God forbid there should be complex narratives and -- whatever the opposite of straightforward language is. Crooked language? Curvy language?

I hope this is all on Norton; I hope Lee hasn't really moved in this direction. Though the title of the book makes me wonder.