Winner of The 2012 X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, selected by Sandra Beasley “In A Little Luck, Jeff Worley presents that rarest of commodities—a voice encyclopedic in its attentions, clever, self-aware, and deeply likeable. Worley’s humor throughout is dark and smart, his phrasings elegant. I would give A Little Luck to the reader who loves the work of Ted Kooser or Rodney Jones. I’d give this book to the reader who does not yet realize he loves poetry.” —Sandra Beasley Final Judge THE DAY AFTER MY DEATH —after lines by Michael Van Walleghen The moon, stars and weather will happen as they always have, though surely with my breath gone the wind, in some slight measure, will falter. Absent my footsteps the earth will feel along its spine a momentary shiver of abandonment. And my friends? Won’t they gather with me again, in whatever purple- swagged room, for wine and stories, some of them nearly impossibly true? Meanwhile, the mailman, humming like a bee in a blossom, will slip my name into the metal box: an unsigned note from The Paris Review saying, simply, Sorry.