Primiere Poet Angelo Verga at Cornelia Street Friday, Feb. 20

Angelo Verga's new poetry book, "Praise for What Remains" (Three Rooms Press) is a real gem, one of those books you start and can't put down. It's unlike anything I've seen and I've been read it now about 10 times.

Catch this one-time only complete reading of an amazing artist at New York's fabulous Cornelia Street Cafe Friday Feb. 20, 6 p.m.

Angelo Verga has been very widely published in the Americas & Europe. His six collections of poems include 33 NYC Poems (Booklyn, 2005), and A Hurricane Is (Jane Street, 2003). Verga promotes poetry in public spaces, notably The Cornelia Street Cafe where he curates over 300 literary events per year. He lives & writes in a highrise above the western edge of Manhattan with the Statue of Liberty as his night light.

In the amazing "Praise for What Remains," Verga takes on the capitalistic greed that multiplied exponentially in the last decade, and the resultant financial mecca that is now in the process of imploding. His takes are alternately tender and merciless, tearing down every sacred cow with poetry that explodes off the page in its confident stance.

Open reading before the feature. Sign up at 5:45 to be sure you make the list. Only $7 and that includes a free drink.