Richard Michelson's poetry collections include Sleeping as Fast as I Can (Slant Books, 2023), More Money than God (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), and Battles and Lullabies (U of Illinois, 2006). Michelson has received a National Jewish Book Award, and two Sydney Taylor Gold Medals from the Association of Jewish Libraries. His many children's books have been named among the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker. A native of East New York, Brooklyn, Michelson served two terms as Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, where he hosts a poetry radio program, and owns R. Michelson Galleries.

Other poems on the web by Richard Michelson:
Five poems
Two poems

Richard Michelson's Website.

About Sleeping as Fast as I Can:

"A high spirited romp with language and a tough spiritual struggle with suffering, violence, the text of the Old Testament, and a God who explains that 'Heaven is everyone armed and open carry. Come on in.' Finishing this book I turned right around and started over—it was that rich, that good."
—Alicia Ostriker

"Sleeping as Fast as I Can is a book where prayers are filled with history, and history is filled with the urgency of the present; a book that isn't afraid of tragedy because it holds music as a shield. For me, Michelson's poems deliver an unrelenting message, one unafraid to transport 'home our holy, temporary hearts.'"
—Ilya Kaminsky

"Richard Michelson's poems are easy to read and hard at the same time. With clarity and wit their honesty touches deep into pain: of a father lost long ago, of a mother now in her decline, of life, of contemporary history, of Jewish life, of Jewish history, of the violence that spoils it all. But then come the words of blessing in the midst of the dark that understands 'Light is our only future.'"
—Rodger Kamenetz

"Richard Michelson is a poet who understands the measure and music in the art of poetry. Sleeping as Fast as I Can brings prayers, rants, memoria, and rage against hatred, violence, racism, and anti-Semitism in a bitches brew of language on every page...."
—Patricia Spears Jones