{"title":"All Titles","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"into-the-snow","title":"Into the Snow - Selected Poems of Gennady Aygi","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/gennady-aygi\"\u003eGennady Aygi\u003c\/a\u003e, Translated by \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/sarah-valentine\"\u003eSarah Valentine\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eIn packages—in the supermarket—piles of potatoes.\u003cbr\u003eAnd on the posters—in the supermarket—the Shaman.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnimated by an elemental sense of life, mortality, and humanity, the Chuvash poet Gennady Aygi wrote poems that fused his experience of ethnic difference with an avant-garde aesthetic. Artfully translated from the Russian by poet and scholar Sarah Valentine, these strong, precise poems challenge language to plumb the depths of human feeling and simultaneously attune to linguistic experimentalism. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Translator Sarah Valentine puts a fresh spin on the experimental master’s Russian and Chuvashian poems, capturing Aygi’s brilliantly diverse styles and forms in a compelling and genuine space. As sprawling as it is specific, \u003ci\u003eInto the Snow\u003c\/i\u003e serves as a powerful introduction into the work of the cold, desolate writer who learned to embrace his immediate landscape, political and natural, highlighted with a transcendental struggle, and a love for a poetics of minimalism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/plopit.org\/2011\/08\/09\/into-the-snow-selected-poems-of-gennady-aygi-valentine-2011\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eGreg Bem, \u003ci\u003ePlop!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnimated by an elemental sense of life, mortality, and humanity, the Chuvash poet Gennady Aygi wrote poems that fused his experience of ethnic difference with an avant-garde aesthetic. Artfully translated from the Russian by poet and scholar Sarah Valentine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newpages.com\/books\/noteworthy\/2011-08-04\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eNewPages\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAygi’s work shows how even simplicity can be revolutionary when it reinforces the power of the human soul over political obstacles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/htmlgiant.com\/reviews\/into-the-snow\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eAmy Henry, \u003ci\u003eHTMLGIANT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI enjoyed the breathless texture and brevity of these poems—as if they could barely bear themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.montevidayo.com\/?p=2248\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eJoyelle McSweeney, \u003ci\u003e Montevidayo \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eInto the Snow\u003c\/em\u003e is a lovely primer into the work of a poet who is beginning to gain worldwide notoriety. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/therumpus.net\/2012\/03\/gods-geese-go-to-pond\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eErin Lyndal Martin, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAygi explains that his art seeks to express “an orientation toward the human in his or her connection with nature—with its unchanging miraculousness.\" Somehow, by turning away from rational thought and the trappings of modernity, we can tap into something meaningful, and if we are lucky, we will perhaps even achieve a kind of enlightenment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.berfrois.com\/2012\/06\/jamie-olson-on-gennady-aygi\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eJamie Olson, \u003ci\u003eBerfois\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: November 1, 2011\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517537 (6x8.5 128pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Gennady Aygi","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":184860342,"sku":"9781933517537","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":184860672,"sku":"9781933517537","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/intothesnow.jpg?v=1419361652"},{"product_id":"micrograms","title":"Micrograms","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/jorge-carrera-andrade\"\u003eJorge Carrera Andrade\u003c\/a\u003e, Translated by \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/alejandro-de-acosta\"\u003eAlejandro de Acosta\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joshua-beckman\"\u003eJoshua Beckman\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003ci\u003eIn the alphabet of things\u003cbr\u003ethe snail invents\u003cbr\u003ethe penultimate letter.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEqual parts essay, anthology, and poetry, and weirdly post-modern in structure, \u003ci\u003eMicrograms\u003c\/i\u003e embodies the work of Jorge Carrera Andrade, illustrating his claim that the impulse toward the microgram has always existed. Illuminating the form in its many incarnations (most famously the Japanese haiku), Carrera Andrade points to the richness of possibility contained therein. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Wave Books and the translators are to be applauded for undertaking this refreshing reclamation project, which leads to reflections that more than trump its modest size. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/quarterlyconversation.com\/micrograms-by-jorge-carrera-andrade\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e Donna Stonecipher, \u003ci\u003eQuarterly Conversation \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCarrera Andrade's micrograms quickly cast their spell, such that I finished wanting at least double the number presented here. The author instead offers nearly two dozen haiku he has translated from Japanese, which Acosta and Beckman translate freely into English, sacrificing, as far as I can tell none of their punch. The entire volume makes a strong case for the power of lyric brevity...\u003cem\u003emagnificente\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/drunkenboat.com\/db15\/micrograms-and-driven-to-abstraction\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Keene, \u003ci\u003eDrunken Boat\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCarrera Andrade’s... poems are appealing little pieces, their own tiny little perfume bottles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.complete-review.com\/reviews\/poetrytr\/carreraa.htm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e M.A. Orthofer, \u003ci\u003eThe Complete Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe microgram is, well, micro (there is a joke here about William Carlos Williams and \"micromachines\" but I will spare you), aphoristic, light, and most certainly lyrical. These are safety poems, in case of, and potentially rare, endangered poems. Not only do I like Wave Books’ edition more, I liked the Alejandro de Acosta and Joshua Beckman translation much more than the original. To go a step further, I liked the essays more than the poems, both Andrade’s and the translators’.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bookslut.com\/latin_lit_lover\/2012_04_018835.php\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e Jesse Tangen-Mills, \u003ci\u003eBookslut \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeckman and de Acosta translate the microgram with loyalty to Andrade’s flare for the Romantic, showing us the unseen world of creatures who are engaged in jobs and tasks that mirror our workaday lives. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-1-933517-55-1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI encourage you to pick up a copy of Joshua Beckman and Alejandro de Acosta’s translation of \u003cem\u003eMicrograms\u003c\/em\u003e from Wave Books. I’ve never read anything quite like these poems before, and Beckman and de Acosta have given us a marvelous introduction to Andrade’s work. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.gwarlingo.com\/2012\/the-sunday-poem-jorge-carrera-andrades-micrograms\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eMichelle Aldredge, \u003ci\u003eGwarlingo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNourished and inspired by the natural world, [Andrade] develops a distilled voice based on the purity of sounds: a music grounded in immediacy, undecorated but timeless.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/galatearesurrection22.blogspot.com\/2014\/06\/micrograms-by-jorge-carrera-andrade.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eGreta Aart, \u003ci\u003eGalatea Resurrects\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: November 1, 2011\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517551 (5x7 96pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Jorge Carrera Andrade","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":188598352,"sku":"9781933517551","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":188598362,"sku":"9781933517551","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/microrams.jpg?v=1419361743"},{"product_id":"notes-from-irrelevance","title":"Notes from Irrelevance","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/anselm-berrigan\"\u003eAnselm Berrigan\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eI at some point decided \u003cbr\u003eto be—or became, \u003cbr\u003eunderstanding later— \u003cbr\u003einfluenced by, potentially,\u003cbr\u003eanything...\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis generous book-length poem is an investigation of the author’s unique personal history as it entwines with his present role as poet, citizen, and “one of the six billion-plus.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e \u003ci\u003eNotes\u003c\/i\u003e is a stunning statement to a world that has made artifacts of absolutes...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/arts\/books\/2011\/11\/27\/blue-tower-tomaz-salamun-and-notes-from-irrelevance-anselm-berrigan\/AzGjXFPQKzfKkq3mEY2OII\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eMichael Brodeur, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a poem addressed to you as much as to anyone, these \u003cem\u003eNotes from Irrelevance\u003c\/em\u003e are in their fierceness finally, deeply relevant. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonreview.net\/poetry-microreview\/microreview-anselm-berrigan-notes-irrelevance\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eRoy Scranton, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNotes From Irrelevance\u003c\/i\u003e is a long weave of sentence shimmers with influences of someone who has read and absorbed a rich range, from classics to the most experimental, making each phrasing kinetic with questions about the way he has experienced sound and the sight of letters. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/therumpus.net\/2011\/10\/im-nothing-if-not-polite\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBarbara Berman, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis single stanza, book-length poem is a compilation of such linguistically rich and syntactically varied sentences. Discursive like much of Berrigan’s work, the poem meanders through a day in the life (or perhaps a week or longer), capturing the essence of what life is like for the author, who self-identifies as “currently one \/ of the six billion-plus.” And though there are autobiographical moments specific to the author, the poem speaks to a wider experience too—to what it’s like to be alive and thinking in America today...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newpages.com\/item\/3859-notes-from-irrelevance\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eGina Myers, \u003ci\u003eNew Pages\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBerrigan is always in control–of the line, of the sentence, of the digressions–all in attempt to show that poetry is not a space for tidy representation, but a sprawling performance of thought and experience, a body of vocabularies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/coldfrontmag.com\/reviews\/notes-from-irrelevance\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eNick Sturm, \u003ci\u003eColdfront Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow Berrigan can be sad, silly, revelatory, awkward, and brilliantly dismissive in a single long sentence of poetry is his secret. Even narrating a simple stroll through an old neighborhood after canceling a class is inflected with a protean beauty most poets wouldn't dream of trying to convoke in such skeining detail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bucknell.edu\/west-branch-wired\/past-issues-of-wired\/winter-2013\/joshua-marie-wilkinson.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eJoshua Marie Wilkinson, \u003ci\u003eWest Branch Wired\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStirring cosmic observations and succinct “micro-meanings” in the same pot, Berrigan creates a single poem that reads like the manifesto of a poet who would never admit he’s writing one...The poem serves as a snapshot of the complexity of day-to-day life, 2011-style.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-1-933517-54-4\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNotes from Irrelevance\u003c\/i\u003e reminds me of those movie scenes where the hero has seconds to defuse a ticking bomb by touching two wires together, but isn’t sure which the right ones are. The wires here are the twisting, tensile lines, like the seven-clause stunner that opens the poem; the bomb is the urgency of the poet’s self-interrogation as it works its way through memory, family history, friendships, anxieties, and “uncodable degrees of grief”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/review\/show\/532328211\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eRodney Koeneke, \u003ci\u003ePoetry Project Newsletter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e #230\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: September 1, 2011\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517544 (5x7.5 80pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Anselm Berrigan","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":189338172,"sku":"9781933517544","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":189338182,"sku":"9781933517544","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/notesfromirrelevance_large.jpg?v=1419361890"},{"product_id":"selected-poems","title":"Selected Poems","description":"\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/mary-ruefle\"\u003eMary Ruefle\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e A career-defining retrospective by a much-beloved contemporary master.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMary Ruefle’s \u003ci\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/i\u003e gathers together the finest work from her distinguished and inimitable poetic career, showcasing the arc of her development as one of the most brilliant, expert and hilarious practitioners of the art. Anyone who wishes for poetry to be both richly challenging and thoroughly entertaining, need look no further than this capacious retrospective.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2011 William Carlos Williams Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Sometimes, a series of moves can add up to an utterance or articulation that can communicate emotionally—and maybe even wisely, as shocking as that idea might be—while disorienting and unsettling us... I think this is really what Pound meant when he said what he said about making it new. And I think it’s what most of us really want from poetry. Mary Ruefle’s Selected collects the best and brightest from her ten books. It is way worth checking out. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAdrian Blevins, \u003ci\u003ePloughshares\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer language is simple and direct, even when the poem itself is not; one of the enjoyable paradoxes of reading Ruefle’s work is how easy it is to read, but how many possible meanings you can make. Though sometimes described as an experimental or “post-avant” poet, I have always found Ruefle’s work intelligently accessible, charming and reader-friendly. Her poems tend to absurdism – a poem titled “Barbarians” describes a field of lounging cows, while “My Happiness” follows a meandering porcupine. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJeannine Hall Gailey, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis first retrospective collection from Ruefle, which selects from her nine previous books of poetry... shows her to be a poet of visionary imagination, abiding sensitivity, and melancholy humor. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat her work has not yet won any major award is absurd. Ruefle is clearly one of the best American poets writing, and her body of work is remarkable for its spiritual force, intelligence, stylistic virtuosity, and adventurousness. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTony Hoagland, \u003ci\u003eOn the Seawall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeople sometimes ask me which recent books of poetry I enjoyed reading, and I reply, with embarrassment, that because reading poetry books is my job, I don’t often think of them in terms of how enjoyable they are; I think of them as “interesting” or “not interesting.” Pathetic, I know. But I not only found this book interesting, I enjoyed it. And I hope it wins Mary Ruefle the Pulitzer, especially if they give you some kind of statuette for that, because I think Ruefle would make a flower vase or spaceship out of it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoel Brouwer, \u003ci\u003ePoetry \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuefle’s empirical language, littered with superlatives, activates the imagination of the poems’ speakers. What’s noticed draws forth what’s absent (side note: the poet is also an accomplished erasure artist). The previously absent is now present, as real as any other reality. The world is enriched as a result of being looked at. Vivid actions, thoughts and feelings are animated in the speakers. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJennifer H. Fortin, \u003ci\u003eColdfront\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs soon as you’ve landed somewhere, Ruefle is already on to something else. When Dickinson suggested “tell it slant,” she was also saying look somewhere else, and Ruefle is always looking somewhere else. What makes her so different from her contemporaries is how the central power of the poems comes from an encounter with the imagination and not so much with any a ha! moment about reality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Klein, \u003ci\u003e Los Angeles Review of Books \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: September 1, 2010\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517568 (6x9 176pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mary Ruefle","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":189810742,"sku":"9781933517568","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Trade Hard Cover","offer_id":795053533,"sku":"9781933517568","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/ruefle_selected_poems.jpg?v=1332909782"},{"product_id":"snowflake-different-streets","title":"Snowflake \/ different streets","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/eileen-myles\"\u003eEileen Myles\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn their first book of poetry since 2007, legendary poet, critic, and novelist Eileen Myles creates poet and poem anew as they push the boundaries of their craft ever closer to the enigmatic core. \u003ci\u003eSnowflake\u003c\/i\u003e finds the poet awash in an extended and distressed landscape mediated by technology and its distortion of time and space. In \u003ci\u003edifferent streets\u003c\/i\u003e, the poet returns home, to the familiar world of human connection. Two books meet as one: more Eileen Myles, more indelible connection, more fleeting ecstasy. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwo books by Myles combined in tête-bêche formatting.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Eileen Myles [offers] the reader a humanely funny extended meditation on travel through space and time, and how such distances are mediated by technology and the mind. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKathleen Rooney, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e...Myles’ genius lies in making the grand gesture that includes the trivial detail and the sublime at once, their juxtaposition underscoring how we are small and made large by connection, paradoxically isolate and dependent. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrian Teare, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyles confronts the pressing extenuations of identity, materiality, spatiality, and spirituality, and in so doing illuminates a melting quality to these confrontations that is at once spellbinding and sad. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThomas Page McBee, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Phoenix\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyles has always written queerly, her lens beautifully tilted, her work — whether art critique or a libretto or novels or, again and again, poems—lawless and conversational, precise and transcendent. In her new collection she illuminates the link between gender and physical space in one pass. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeth Abramson, \u003ci\u003eHuffington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt 63, Myles is still a countercultural dream machine, back with her first verse in five years. In her short-breathed lines, technology and tenderness torque time and space...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Robbins, \u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom these two new books, the reader can gather that it isn’t just the day that is strong and can withstand change, but the same words can be applied to the speakers of these poems and to Myles herself. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGina Myers, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis new double collection of poems from Wave Books in Seattle has everything readers of Myles adore in her work. All the wit, charm, honesty, sexiness, and surprises are here for another go-round.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePatrick James Dunagan, \u003ci\u003eNew Pages\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe newest from the legendary Myles (\u003cem\u003eSorry, Tree\u003c\/em\u003e) is two books in one, printed in opposite directions in the same book, one more public-facing while the other is more private. Conversational yet exact, Myles navigates contemporary landscape with seemingly effortless wit and tenderness. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2012\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517582 (5x7 232pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Eileen Myles","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":195562902,"sku":"9781933517582","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":209336083,"sku":"9781933517582","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/snowflake_sc_2.jpg?v=1421708458"},{"product_id":"madness-rack-and-honey","title":"Madness, Rack, and Honey","description":"\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/mary-ruefle\"\u003eMary Ruefle\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003cem\u003eFor every time I read a poem I am willing to die...\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver the course of 15 years, award-winning poet Mary Ruefle delivered a lecture every six months to a group of poetry graduate students. Collected here for the first time, these lectures articulate the wisdom accrued through a life dedicated entirely to poetry. Intellectually virtuosic, instructive and experiential, \u003cem\u003eMadness, Rack, and Honey\u003c\/em\u003e resists definition, demanding instead an utter—and utterly pleasurable—immersion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2012 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in Criticism \u003cbr\u003eListed in Best Books for Writers by Poets \u0026amp; Writers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e This is one of the wisest books I've read in years... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Kirby, \u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo writer I know of comes close to even trying to articulate the weird magic of poetry as Ruefle does. She acknowledges and celebrates in the odd mystery and mysticism of the act—the fact that poetry must both guard and reveal, hint at and pull back... Also, and maybe most crucially, Ruefle’s work is never once stuffy or overdone: she writes this stuff with a level of seriousness-as-play that’s vital and welcome, that doesn’t make writing poetry sound anything but wild, strange, life-enlargening fun. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWeston Cutter, \u003cem\u003eThe Kenyon Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProfound, unpredictable, charming, and outright funny...These informal talks have far more staying power and verve than most of their kind. Readers may come away dazzled, as well as amused...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMadness, Rack, and Honey \u003c\/em\u003eis a gift from a rigorous intellect, unflinching critic, and a big old sloppy heart. Ruefle has created a work of poetry from the daunting task of writing about it. Don’t be surprised if this book is remembered as a classic of its genre.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLisa Wells, \u003cem\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a book not just for poets but for anyone interested in the human heart, the inner-life, the breath exhaling a completion of an idea that will make you feel changed in some way. This is a desert island book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMatthew Dickman, \u003cem\u003eTin House\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuefle’s voice is rangy and intellectually supple, capable of conjuring with the knottiest questions of identity and narrative in one breath and then swooping to the personal or lyrical in the next. Especially tonic is the author’s impatience with stodgy, unquestioned verities or lazy thinking in general; at times, she bristles with exasperation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMichael Lindgren, \u003cem\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese are adroit, polysemic essays that frequently wrong-foot the reader: just when one thinks the writer has gone too far out, is wandering lost amidst her quotations and references, she turns suddenly canny and pulls the connections together in one swift movement. Ruefle likes to play dumb and then turn on a dime to reveal an intelligence almost cruel in its precision. Hers are neither formal essays nor craft writing (though there is no doubt that the exercise of poetic craft is their fuel); they are learned, thoughtful pieces, with thick references to Coleridge and Keats, Bataille and Barthes, Cy Twombly keeping good company with John Crowe Ransom. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJ.S.A. Lowe, \u003cem\u003eGulf Coast\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuefle’s musings defy genre or the neat order of the form, and their marvelous charm is the result of not adhering to particular rules.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSarah Seltzer, \u003ci\u003e Flavorwire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe accomplished poet is humorous and self-deprecating in this collection of illuminating essays on poetry, aesthetics and literature...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSan Francisco Examiner\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: August 7, 2012\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517575 (5.5x8 332pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mary Ruefle","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":195564852,"sku":"9781933517575","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":237575681,"sku":"9781933517575","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":50255100805424,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/mrahsoft.png?v=1682024282"},{"product_id":"a-beautiful-marsupial-afternoon-new-somatics","title":"A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon - New (Soma)tics","description":"\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/caconrad\"\u003eCAConrad\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003ethis mechanistic world…has required me to FIND MY BODY to FIND MY PLANET in order to find my poetry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince their 2005 inception, CAConrad’s (Soma)tic exercises have been summoning the whole spectrum of human experience in the name of poetry. \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon\u003c\/i\u003e collects 27 new and previously published exercises and their emerging poems, incorporating unorthodox steps in the writing process from the tangible everyday to the cosmos of the imagination. Together they manifest as an urgent call for a connective, concentrated, and unfettered creativity. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e The world gives us cops and cops and cops and cops and cops, but CAConrad gives us Breton-trumping anarcho-lyric behavior and l’amo[u]r mundi fou.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnne Boyer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe (Soma)tic Exercises are innovative and crucial to our art form—they both invent a new genre and help increase freedom from the double tyrannies of both the tired narrative form and short, personal lyric form. Conrad must be one of the most original practitioners of poetry forging new territory. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSean Singer, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConrad’s now-discursive, now-fragmentary poetry offers us a mirror we may hold up to ourselves, if only we dare; eccentric, insistent, passionate, and indubitably wide-eyed, it also reflects those precious human traits we too often leave by the wayside on our dreary, unprofitable, and finally destructive searches for well-assimilated lives and loves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeth Abramson, \u003ci\u003eHuffington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\nCAConrad's new book is a strange and wondrous collection of texts. Physically and emotionally intimate, by turns vulnerable, outrageous, and hilarious, \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon\u003c\/i\u003e asks that we seriously consider the power of poetry as a lived and embodied practice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbraham Avnisan, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s a book for people, I should say. Everyone can be found and find in it. When I go through the work, I like to think of Conrad as more of a guide than an author. He’s there working with you and for you. I like that—it’s a caring there. It made me happy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTom Trudgeon, \u003ci\u003eHTMLGiant\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf the motto of the Situationists, with whom Conrad has much in common, was “Be realistic—demand the impossible!”, then a suggested motto for those wishing to proceed in the spirit of Conrad might be, “Be reasonable—do what is insane!”... Conrad’s most recent book of poems, \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon\u003c\/i\u003e, is a guide to practical insanity. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLynne DeSilva-Johnson, \u003ci\u003eExit Strata\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END REVIEWS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003c!---BIO END----\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2012\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517599 (8x10.5 240pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"CAConrad","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":195565522,"sku":"9781933517599","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":209978367,"sku":"9781933517599","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/beautifulmarsupial.jpg?v=1328660641"},{"product_id":"sorry-tree","title":"Sorry, Tree","description":"\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/eileen-myles\"\u003eEileen Myles\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003cem\u003eI like therapy because I don't need my glasses\u003cbr\u003eI can sit there naked like the animal I am\u003cbr\u003ea beautiful honest animal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSexy, cool and uncompromising, Myles’ trademark punk sensibility and intimate knowledge of poetic tradition are at work in this eighth collection where every love poem is political and every political poem is, ultimately, about love. \u003cem\u003eSorry, Tree\u003c\/em\u003e secures Myles’ eminence as America’s most fearless poet. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e “I think writing \/ is desire \/ not a form \/ of it,” she writes in, “For Jordana,” meditating on the separation of lovers and the marvelously fractured sense of perception this brings to the contents of a “day that’s captured \/ some way \/separately.” These distinctions about writing as something other than form--the extension of one’s perceptive capabilities, perhaps, as a process of apprehension--marks Myles’s work with peculiar insight to the sexual and spiritual presence in words. Such erotic markings bring readers into situations where desire is enacted in the words, rather than formally organized to comment with reflective distance on the broken relationship of lovers. Form certainly exists in Myles’s work, but her writing stresses the process of a discovery in language that is motivated by a willingness to witness desire’s force in words. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDale Smith, \u003cem\u003eBookslut\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSorry, Tree\u003c\/em\u003e is like picking up the phone or an earplug for an iPod or other MP3 device, and listening in on someone talking to themselves instead of you, and yet knowing you’re listening in ... It’s both private and public speech sharing obviously private thoughts and moments mixed with direct address to the reader in a way that is both new and seeped in tradition. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMichael Lally, \u003cem\u003eLally’s Alley\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike any worthwhile work of art you’ll leave it seeing the world in a deeper, different way. You might even know yourself better. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn J. Geysen, \u003cem\u003ePop Syndicate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyles is a poet with a history who writes about history, her personal history and our political history, and how the two intertwine and can't be separated, even if we might want them to. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKathleen Rooney, \u003cem\u003eOpen Letters\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSorry, Tree\u003c\/em\u003e is a fucking funny title for a book... And especially for a book by Eileen Myles, whose poetry—whether it’s about being lovesick or on a boat full of barfing people or surrounded by conservative zealots—is the opposite of apologetic. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBrendan Kiley, \u003cem\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyles has often included, in her books of \"poetry,\" some sort of prose essay, or manifesto, around which the poems accrete and gain meaning; maybe these prose pieces are also there to detourne the shape of the book, to make it not all poetry, for Myles is a well known despiser of genre's segregations. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePoem Hunter\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEileen Myles's \u003cem\u003eSorry, Tree\u003c\/em\u003e achieves a wispy, brilliant blend of the political and personal. She does not shy away from historical subject matter, but she defines it by way of the ordinary day. But make no mistake, the days of a poet of Myles's incisive talent contain nothing ordinary at all. Love, lawn-chairs, death, bad dreams, and September 11th all wind their way through verse at once confessional and driven purely by form. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMeg Hurtado, \u003cem\u003eVerse\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyles’s latest collection of poetry is successful because it showcases the irony, honesty, lyricism, and toughness that have made her, in Dennis Cooper’s words, “one of the savviest and most restless intellects in contemporary literature.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBeth Lizardo, \u003cem\u003eKliatt\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSorry, Tree\u003c\/em\u003e is flat out a terrific book, joining what seem to be the simplest personal poems with a poetic craft that dazzles. It's an aesthetic that sounds like what some part of the School of Quietude would be up to, but Myles takes a tradition that includes everything from Ginsberg to Berrigan to Bukowski to Patti Smith \u0026amp; Lee Ann Brown, and definitely Anne Waldman, Barbara Barg \u0026amp; Elaine Equi, and even Ed Sanders \u0026amp; Paul Blackburn, to forge a writing that comes across simultaneously as effortless \u0026amp; utterly gorgeous. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRon Silliman, \u003cem\u003eSilliman's Blog\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne would be hard-pressed to find a contemporary poet who exemplifies a voice as unique and energetic as that of Eileen Myles. In her latest collection, \u003cem\u003eSorry, Tree\u003c\/em\u003e, Myles captures what can only be assessed as truly American visions. Through ultra-keen observation and inimitable poetic gesture, she demonstrates an uncanny ability to construct innovative stories out of single moments and thoughts which might be considered universal in today’s American experience. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRick Marlatt, \u003cem\u003eColdfront\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyles’ poems feel as though they were written while moving and they’re good. The poems travel distances in line breaks and between words. The language has a pulse ... there is a restlessness that doesn’t come from uneasiness. No, the restlessness stems from the desire to be doing something\/experiencing something new, a desire to turn the everyday into something unique: a single day. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGina Myers, \u003cem\u003eOctopus Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI missed my stop on the subway, while reading this, I was transported and, perhaps fortunately, not to my intended destination. Instead I visited the spaces that the poet inhabits, which her voice so viscerally describes. I was on a ferry and in a bedroom, within a warm house deep in thought, capturing each minuscule feeling that visited me. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Brooklyn Socialite\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeing able to exist in a book like this means you’re in good shape for just about anything... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGabriel Ricard, \u003cem\u003eUnlikely Blog\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2007\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517209 (5.5x9 96pp, paperback)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781933517216 (5.5x9 96pp, limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Eileen Myles","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":195616262,"sku":"9781933517209","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":195616272,"sku":"9781933517216","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/sorrytree.jpg?v=1328664632"},{"product_id":"the-book-of-frank","title":"The Book of Frank","description":"\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/caconrad\"\u003eCAConrad\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eFrank grew crows for hands\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eit was a difficult childhood\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e Praised by poet Anne Waldman as a “voyeuresque surreal portrait,” \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Frank\u003c\/i\u003e is also, in the words of poet-critic Alan Gilbert, a “candid portrayal of human cruelty and its resultant fantasies of escape.” This is an expanded edition of CAConrad’s \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Frank\u003c\/i\u003e, featuring additional “Frank” poems and an afterword by Eileen Myles. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Conrad’s approach is a welcome change from high-minded poetry that steadfastly ignores the body in all its dumb, limiting materiality. Rimbaud declared that “I is another”; Conrad’s work shows us that the body itself is the first source of alienation and estrangement from the self, and is thus the true subject of poetry. Only by engaging this body, by forcing ourselves to travel through the shames and humiliations of its portals, can we achieve transport.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChristopher Schmidt, \u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      \u003cbr\u003eAt once charming and frightening, \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Frank\u003c\/i\u003e will certainly take the top of your head off, and it might just replace it with something better. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNoah Eli Gordon, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book offers provocative language and surprising subject matter throughout. The images are surreal, simple, startling and original... Frankly speaking, Mr. Conrad is a poet worth reading. Highly recommended.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharles Kruger, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConrad has created a intriguing book of poems, original, lucid and accessible in the best sense of the word. To read them is to enter into his world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMary Wilson, \u003ci\u003eMAKE Mag\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Frank\u003c\/i\u003e, CAConrad recasts this birth; he makes a cast of this birth; he casts a new son from it; like Warhol, he generates counterfeits and multiples; like Warhol, these images start to resemble one another, to enjoy a paradoxical life in and as Art that totally replaces the horizon line of conventional biology, temporality and experience.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoyelle McSweeney, \u003ci\u003eJacket2\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI…find that it takes risks. There are words in this book that speak to those who always find beauty within the filth. Just sit there…after reading, take a breath, and admire the beauty hidden within the words.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSaku Egon Evon, \u003ci\u003eColumbia Poetry Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: October 1, 2010\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517490 (5.25x8 176pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"CAConrad","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196048652,"sku":"9781933517490","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/conrad.frank.front.15.jpg?v=1433365202"},{"product_id":"poet-by-default","title":"Poet by Default","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/tristan-corbiere\"\u003eTristan Corbière\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003cem\u003e...I have the clearness of the moon,\u003cbr\u003eAnd for friends I have amorous vagabonds with no money.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA limited-edition, hand-sewn collection of Noelle Kocot’s translations of some of the poems of Tristan Corbière. Made right here at Wave HQ, with love. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSOLD OUT\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: September 1, 2011\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517605 (6.5x10 32pp, limited edition paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Tristan Corbière","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Paperback","offer_id":196394322,"sku":"9781933517605","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/poetbydefault_grande.jpg?v=1417560335"},{"product_id":"the-bigger-world","title":"The Bigger World","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/noelle-kocot\"\u003eNoelle Kocot\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003cem\u003e...“Self, I proclaim\u003cbr\u003eYou shiny leather, and I love\u003cbr\u003eThe way you fit my migration.\u003cbr\u003eGo to it!”\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn these new character poems, Noelle Kocot turns to the private lives of others, exploring the quirks and foibles of lifelong relationships. Funny, unpredictable, and deliciously dark, these poems celebrate the manifold possibilities of love and human experience. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Kocot’s ability to assemble the fragments of people’s disintegrating lives is what makes these prose poems magnificent. The people in The Bigger World are helium ghosts lifting Kocot into a personal freedom and the poems are her hand extending down, asking us to rise with her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAmber Tamblyn, \u003cem\u003eBUST Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom child-hating Horatia and suspect saint Rita to “polyamorous shaman” Rick, widowed Ann burning a scrap of paper with her husband’s name, Francine wanting not happiness but “truth, which was savage\/ and dangerous,” and even a “mirthy owl,” Noelle Kocot’s \u003cem\u003eThe Bigger World\u003c\/em\u003e paints dead-on little portraits of human (and avian) chicanery.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBarbara Hoffert, \u003cem\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhereas Kocot’s previous two books mourned the loss of her husband in anguished and metaphorically loaded lines, \u003ci\u003eThe Bigger World\u003c\/i\u003e presents brief vignettes about named characters. “Seymour left the beach and traveled \/ Down a dirt road,” one poem begins; “Saskia took a turn for the better,” starts another. The atmosphere is surreal folklore, Julie Hecht meets Hans Christian Andersen. A tax-cheating dentist’s term in purgatory will last “as long as it takes to fill \/ Out a million 1040 forms, \/ Minus one rotation of a drill.” Yet while they read like stories, the poems forswear narrative logic, tumbling their occupants instead among level planes of the banal and weighty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSiobhan Phillips, \u003cem\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis new world she’s created for us to move around in is so different from her other books and yet, like all visionaries (which I unabashedly say she is), this book is the logical and luminous next step a career that has already produced some of the most challenging, daring and compassionate poems I’ve read. I’m thankful for it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGabrielle Calvocoressi, \u003cem\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs in all good fables, Kocot forgoes subtle symbols for precise and darkly humorous ones that immediately evoke emotion and morality... And, like fairly tales for grownups, these little narratives often end with happiness unmistakably shaded by disappointment, as when a newly reconciled mother and son “walked\/ Silently on, not out of the flames\/ Or anything, but just walked on.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore than anything else, Kocot’s generative imagination is the main catalyst that makes these poems explode. Illuminated, feral, Kocot’s creativity engenders an excitement comparable to being twelve years old, exposed to good poetry or music or art for the first time, and knowing that, for better or worse, things have been bent. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNick Sturm, \u003cem\u003eColdfront\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe series of third-person narrative vignettes of which \u003cem\u003eThe Bigger World\u003c\/em\u003e is comprised is compulsively readable and not infrequently brilliant. Kocot’s characters boast their own distinctive symbology; the landscape upon which these breezily-recounted stories unfold is one in which nothing whatsoever is as might be expected, and what often seem preposterous plots and personalities soon enough take a turn toward the sublime. Kocot’s language is more often prosaic than cleverly subtle, but the whole is without question more than the sum of the parts: \u003cem\u003eThe Bigger World\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the most pleasurable reads this reviewer has encountered in some time. Every page in this collection offers a new delight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSeth Abramson, \u003cem\u003eThe Huffington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe differing realizations or ultimate perplexities involving the interplay of truth\/happiness in these narrative poems makes \u003cem\u003eThe Bigger World\u003c\/em\u003e is instructive as well as absorbing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThomas Fink, \u003cem\u003eGalatea Resurrects\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKocot’s poetry can be viewed as representative, or even symptomatic, of our times. There seem to be a few noteworthy poets in every generation, those who channel the zeitgeist from a clarifying distance, an artful remove. Noelle Kocot may well belong to this tradition...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAmy Newlove Schroeder, \u003cem\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2011\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517520 (5x7.5 97pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Noelle Kocot","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196865182,"sku":"9781933517520","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196865192,"sku":"9781933517520","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/biggerworld2.jpg?v=1419362457"},{"product_id":"destroyer-and-preserver","title":"Destroyer and Preserver","description":"\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/matthew-rohrer\"\u003eMatthew Rohrer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe governance of fear will be checked by love.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGriffin Poetry Prize finalist Matthew Rohrer illuminates the modern plight: how to be a thoughtful citizen, parent, and person as the landscape of terror and history worms its way into our everyday existence. Unnervingly humorous, casual, and tender, Rohrer’s poems help us investigate our lives as he investigates his—openly and with a generous presence. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003eThough raggedly honest in his hopelessness, [Rohrer] nonetheless strives, by technical means, to mend what is broken...his choicest songs uniquely navigate the competing commitments of solitude and community and enact the difficulties and pleasures of creating home in oneself and in the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJoshua Wilson, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDestroyer and Preserver\u003c\/i\u003e struggles heroically with the need for concentration \u0026amp; revelation against a field of distraction \u0026amp; shattered perceptions. Rohrer has written with such tender affection–for people, for places, for the very ability to feel \u0026amp; think–that each poem feels weighted with equal parts nostalgia \u0026amp; hope. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNate Pritts, \u003ci\u003eColdfront\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMatthew Rohrer meshes, welds and bolts together phrases and sentences with precision and daring. He also allows his gift, the triple-threat of cleverness, humor and wit, to lead him to deeper and more mature and complex subject matter. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteve Langan, \u003ci\u003eSugar House Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Rohrer’s unpunctuated, paratactic style works, it works brilliantly; when he falters, it is a faltering born of a new sincerity the world (of which readers are a part) renders suspect, as a form of (good-natured) vice. These poems—and the oeuvre of this poet—deserve careful readings, and re-readings, to train ourselves to perform John Cage’s ironic challenge: to see what it is we’re looking at, and to feel what it is (if anything) we feel. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVirginia Konchan, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRohrer writes poems that crackle and sputter, often branching toward new meaning and emotion within the span of a single line, as in the book’s opening poem, where the universe\/ is a long sentence\/ according to our instruments\/ the oldest songs are\/ breaking apart.” If the poems sometimes elevate the mundane in a way that is difficult to trust...they also demonstrate a closeness to their emotional and political urgency...that is rare in contemporary poetry. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END REVIEWS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2011\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517506 (5.5x9 96pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Matthew Rohrer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196866482,"sku":"9781933517506","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196866492,"sku":"9781933517506","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/destroyerandpreserver.jpg?v=1419361521"},{"product_id":"the-cloud-corporation","title":"The Cloud Corporation","description":"\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/timothy-donnelly\"\u003eTimothy Donnelly\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2011 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the 2010 William Carlos Williams Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTimothy Donnelly’s \u003ci\u003eThe Cloud Corporation\u003c\/i\u003e, the long-awaited second collection by Columbia University professor and poetry editor of \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e, is an absolute tour de force, fully investing itself in the possibilities of language and intelligence—by way of a traditional and abiding faith in poetry—to illuminate the ceaseless advances of personal, political and social contingency.\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/collections\/audiobooks\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlso available as an audiobook\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003eThis is an extraordinary collection—the poetry of the future, here, today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJohn Ashbery\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOmnivorous, fast-forward, bull-in-a-china-shop poems that deliver more beauty per minute than can comfortably be withstood. If Whitman had had a young kid and a Brooklyn apartment, too many bills, and a stack of takeout menus in the top drawer of his Ikea desk, he would have written these poems. This is my favorite book of the year.\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cb\u003eDan Chiasson, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDonnelly’s formally rigorous and ambitious, not to mention highly anticipated, second book follows up on the many projects of his debut, \u003ci\u003eTwenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Liebenzeit\u003c\/i\u003e, and extends his powers in poems that encompass a wider emotional range...These poems are a strange and powerful force to be reckoned with.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a book to be read from beginning to end. Not because the poems themselves aren’t individually striking but because this is a book that truly accumulates to something and gives its reader the great gift of being an active part of that accumulation, both critically and emotionally. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGabrielle Calvocoressi, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDramatic tension, humor, lyrical profundity. This is an utterly ingenious and proudly inclusive voice, incorporating clouds—you cannot turn away from it, just as you cannot turn away from “a stage in wakefulness” beyond “a door without mystery.” You are riveted—in the presence of the altered and yet absolutely accurate indication of a sensibility so urgent we find ourselves momentarily re-inventing the term Poet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCarol Muske-Dukes, \u003ci\u003eThe Huffington Post \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEver since getting happily tripped up by \u003ci\u003eThe Waste Land\u003c\/i\u003e, I tend to skip the end notes of a book of poetry. But those for Timothy Donnelly’s \u003ci\u003eThe Cloud Corporation\u003c\/i\u003e (Wave) aren’t easy to ignore. They refer, among other sources, to Maturin’s \u003ci\u003eMelmoth the Wanderer\u003c\/i\u003e, H. L. Mencken, Schopenhauer, Bruce Springsteen, Gibbon, Flaubert’s \u003ci\u003eDiary of a Madman\u003c\/i\u003e, and, in one case, to Osama bin Laden and the theme song to \u003ci\u003eThe Beverly Hillbillies\u003c\/i\u003e. None of this would matter, of course, if the broad range of references weren’t matched by the vaulting agility of the author’s mind. This is an extraordinary collection--the poetry of the future, here, today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Ashbery, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e (London)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Cloud Corporation\u003c\/i\u003e toggles between the two modes of pessimism that Donnelly’s self-scrutinizing sentences explore: first, the private-introspective-philosophical, the poet lamenting entrapment in his own head; second, the public-economic-political, the poet sad to be trapped in our civilization. On the one hand, the attempt to conclude “a single, half-articulate drama\/ about the self and the wearing it must suffer”; on the other hand, the attempt to account for “the infinitesimal portion of the blue\/ planet’s mass that answered to my name.” Both attempts seem ultimately futile, and yet perversely beautiful, in Donnelly’s long lines.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eStephen Burt, \u003ci\u003eColdfront \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDonnelly’s new book, \u003ci\u003eThe Cloud Corporation\u003c\/i\u003e, is a nearly immaculate exercise in haute academic style, from its aggressively quirky titles (“Team of Fake Deities Arranged on an Orange Plate”) to its deliberately affected tone and pose (“Roll back the stone from the sepulcher’s mouth!”), to its frequently Jamesian syntax (sentences here regularly wind through six or seven lines). On top of that, we have diction borrowed equally from business-speak (“optimize my output”) and the vernacular (“I was totally into it”); the deployment of bizarre phrasing generated by collage (“a consistent sweat paragraph”); a mood of pessimism, anxiety, and unhappiness (“We revolt ourselves; we disgust and annoy us”); general distaste for finance and \/ or capitalism (“To His Debt”); and finally, a fundamental reliance on abstraction (“the sky again \/\/ the temple of the mind perceiving it”). If you were trying to concoct a recipe involving every flavor in the cupboard of the hip contemporary poem, you would come up with \u003ci\u003eThe Cloud Corporation\u003c\/i\u003e. It is the epitome of Our Moment. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Orr, \u003ci\u003ePoetry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDonnelly’s book signifies a new maturity in American poetry, not simply a ripeness of dissonant affect, but a bold exploration of poetic diction. In addition, Donnelly’s rigorous, deadpan prosody intervenes decisively in the current impasses of poetic experimentation. The traditional stanza operates in Donnelly’s prosody like an Oulipian constraint; poetic form can be said to occupy the language like a stealthy ordeal. Donnelly is no stranger to innovation—see, too, his choices as poetry editor of the Boston Review—but this book casts innovation not as an end unto itself (as so often happens) but as a means to an end. The apparatus of experiment in \u003ci\u003eThe Cloud Corporation\u003c\/i\u003e is subsumed by a poetics of allegorical expression: cloudy things (and artificial feelings) are simulated through the artifice of form.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDaniel Tiffany, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Cloud Corporation\u003c\/i\u003e is a big book, big and sublime in that it inspires a kind of queasy awe. Its strengths are considerable, even as the poet dissolves the distinction between macro and micro to tell us how it feels to be all wound up with nowhere to go. But I treasure it in terms I rarely apply to art: this book is great because it’s true. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.constantcritic.com\/ray_mcdaniel\/the-cloud-corporation\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eRay McDaniel, \u003ci\u003eThe Constant Critic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: October 1, 2010\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517476 (5.5x9 176pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781950268405 (audiobook)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Timothy Donnelly","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196867552,"sku":"9781933517476","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196867562,"sku":"9781933517476","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":39845122932817,"sku":"9781950268405","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/cloudcorporation.jpg?v=1663684982"},{"product_id":"bluets","title":"Bluets","description":"\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/maggie-nelson\"\u003eMaggie Nelson\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"text-align: left;\" class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n**2019 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION**\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNamed by \u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e in 2015 as one of the top ten books\u003cbr\u003eof the last 20 years.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSuppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color . . . \u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince 2009, when it first published, to today, \u003cem\u003eBluets\u003c\/em\u003e has drawn scores of readers with its surprising insights into the emotional depths that make us most human—via 240 short pieces, at once lyrical and philosophical, on the color blue. This beautiful hardcover edition celebrates Maggie Nelson’s uncompromising vision, inviting longtime fans and newcomers alike to experience and share in an indispensable work that continues to disrupt the literary landscape.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue, while folding in, and responding to, the divergent voices and preoccupations of such generative figures as Wittgenstein, Sei Shonagon, William Gass and Joan Mitchell. \u003ci\u003eBluets\u003c\/i\u003e further confirms Maggie Nelson’s place within the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished in over ten foreign editions\u003c\/b\u003e, including Jonathan Cape, UK (2017), Kolektif Kitap, Turkey (2017), Editions Du Seuil, France (2017), Hanser Berlin, Germany (2017), Modernista, Sweden (2017), Saiplanet, Korea (2017), Editores Tajamar, Spain (2017); Pelikanen Forlag As, Norway (2018), No Kidding, Russia (2019), Schildts; Soderstrom, Finland (2019), Nottetempo, Italy (2023). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAdapted for the stage in 2024\u003c\/b\u003e, by director Katie Mitchell, script adapted by Margaret Perry. Royal Court Theatre, London, England. Starring Emma D’Arcy, Kayla Meikle, and Ben Whishaw. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003eWhen Page comes out as gay and goes on his first public date, his partner gifts him a copy of Bluets by Maggie Nelson. \"It's staggering, heart opening,\" Page wrote. \"It was the perfect book to receive then and there.\" In her powerful collection of essays, Nelson uses the color blue to explore themes of suffering, love, and their limitations. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKatherine Esters on Elliot Page, \u003cem\u003eThe Messenger\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBalancing pathos with philosophy, she created a new kind of classicism, queer in content but elegant, almost cool in shape.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHilton Als, \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis set of meditations on the colour blue is full of wisdom and beauty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNelson's expressive style springs from her subject as much as the content, in turn, inflects her vocabulary, tone and structure. Seeking such reciprocity—no less an ideal than, say, “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”—may radically redefine poetry, as it increasingly becomes the genre that is not one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlbert Mobilio, \u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBuilding the book as a collection of facts and quotations, Nelson interweaves her own insights, textual interpretations, and anecdotes ranging from the tragic to the outrageous. Nelson may, admittedly, have fallen short of the “compendium of blue observations, thoughts, and facts” she says she at first envisioned, but this slim volume is nonetheless an elegant, indispensable addition to the genre of the lyric essay. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eKathleen Rooney, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom blue factoids like Benedict de Saussure’s 1789 invention of “cyanometer, with which he hoped to measure the blue of the sky,” to her own struggles with depression, Nelson gifts us with what seems like a lifetime study of blue while somehow slyly avoiding any of the obvious “blue” clichés. Maggie Nelson continues to raise the bar higher in what a reader can expect from a book. \u003ci\u003eBluets\u003c\/i\u003e is smart yet intimate, quiet yet provocative, and a welcome addition to the poetic non-fiction discourse. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSusie DeFord, \u003ci\u003eBOMB\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the end Nelson breaks free of romance’s tyranny. She dreams someone sends her cornflowers, the American name for bluets. Shaggy, wild, and strong—they’re a revealing metaphor for the author. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJeffrey Cyphers Wright, \u003ci\u003eThe Brooklyn Rail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 240 entries, Nelson relates a history of blue from philosophical, zoological and literary perspectives, all the while weaving in bits of memoir and emotional rumination. Through this collage, she broadens the definition of blue from a merely visual phenomenon to a vehicle for the divine. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCatherine Lacey, \u003ci\u003eTime Out New York \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s an impossible book to describe without simply handing it to you; it is, hackneyed as it is to say, a book to be experienced. I can only report that I am reading it again and again, that the resonances between the (seemingly) disparate propositions are startling and emotional, that I suspect your reaction will be different and also quite wonderful. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Rock, \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrash, feverish, intractable, exploratory, and terribly “touchant” Nelson’s \u003ci\u003eBluets\u003c\/i\u003e is, I am remind’d for some reason (it’s in Marías) of Rimbaud’s line: “Par délicatesse \/ J’ai perdu ma vie.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Latta, \u003ci\u003eIsola di Rifuti \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the 240 prose entries the book consists of, Nelson deals with the personal loss of a relationship and witnesses the physical suffering of a friend who became a quadriplegic following an accident (something Nelson also wrote about in her 2007 poetry collection, Something Bright, Then Holes), all while returning again and again to the color blue. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGina Myers, \u003ci\u003eBookslut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNelson doesn’t want to leave anything out, as suits a collector’s project. Thus, in the same way that she wanders among blue objects (shards of glass, bottles of ink, stones and tattoos and the nests of bowerbirds) and accidental theorists of color (Goethe and Newton and Duras and Novalis) and the color’s utility in human imagination (blue moods, blues music, the blue divine), she likewise wanders among the positions the orchestrator of these lists must adopt. This results in an admixture of candor, passion and detachment that makes for irresistible intimacy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRay McDaniel, \u003ci\u003e The Constant Critic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt must be said upfront that Maggie Nelson could have worked this out as a book of poetry if that’s what she had wanted to do early on. Which is to say, for a book that might actually be an essay, which might be a lyrical essay, for a long work that “blurs genre,” she fills the requirement of what good poetry must do, which is deliver new ways of talking and looking and thinking, and helping us to look and think. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBen Fama, \u003ci\u003eFanzine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book is a philosophical and personal exploration of what the color blue has done to Nelson. Despite the exhaustion, \u003ci\u003eBluets\u003c\/i\u003e wears its hybrid\/fragmented dress well, showing its seams and much enthralled by its wanderlust, an aesthetic runway that constantly leads Nelson to find new ideas, images, and expressions. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThomas Larson, \u003ci\u003eTriQuarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBluets\u003c\/i\u003e reaches far beyond the constraints of its subject, resulting in a series of delicately associative numbered paragraphs investigating a broken romantic relationship, a friend’s chronic nerve pain, the writing process itself, and the deceptive elements of perception and color. The result not only defies easy categorization, but also leans toward Walter Benjamin’s famous declaration that all great works of literature either dissolve a genre or invent one. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRob Schlegel, \u003ci\u003eJacket\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncandescent prose with a structural flow unlike anything I’ve ever read. A book beyond genre that deals with deep topics playfully, offering revelatory insights on every page. I read this book on an airplane and I will never be the same.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChad Murphy, \u003ci\u003eDocument\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Dates: \u003cbr\u003e10th Anniversary Hardcover: September 3, 2019\u003cbr\u003ePaperback: October 1, 2009  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781933517407 (5x8 112pp, paperback)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781940696904 (5x8 112pp, hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Maggie Nelson","offers":[{"title":"10th Anniversary Hardcover","offer_id":24097933557841,"sku":"978-1-940696-90-4","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196868332,"sku":"9781933517407","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196868342,"sku":"9781940696904","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":50255085633840,"sku":null,"price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/bluets.png?v=1681937417"},{"product_id":"awe","title":"AWE","description":"\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/dorothea-lasky\"\u003eDorothea Lasky\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e An unforgettable debut: Lasky is a seductive prophet who delights as well as she terrifies. If the Book of Revelations had been scribbled in the diary of a precocious fourteen-year-old girl, the prophecies might look something like \u003ci\u003eAWE\u003c\/i\u003e. Lasky is a daring truth teller, naming names and boldly pushing the boundaries of confession.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Walt Whitman, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara, Andre Breton and fairy tales shimmer in the background while the speaker, clear-eyed, observes of a wolf we all know: “O the red room of his mouth \/ That I am sleeping so soundly in.” Lasky beckons to us, in a voice bigger than her own, “Follow me, I know everything.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMelanie Hubbard, \u003ci\u003eSt. Petersburg Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAwe is a startling collection, a book willing to offer the reader a quiet intensity and a hushed honesty. Lasky, pushing aside the hip tendencies of our literary moment, writes from the place where poetry started: A genuine need to communicate emotion, to speak to our most human tendencies. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTim Lockridge, \u003ci\u003eCorduroy Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrimming with bright-eyed assertions and candid feelings while maintaining a sense of humor, Lasky’s poetry is surprisingly sincere and optimistic. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKatie Fowley, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Lasky’s] vision is not just in the pictures she shows us in her poems, but in the act of seeing them in the first place. In lines that remind me of the way William Carlos Williams insisted that only the imagination gives us access to reality, Lasky’s poems evoke a practice of living, as bloody and awful and lovely as living can ever be. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJulia Bloch, \u003ci\u003eBitch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost notable in this slim debut is Lasky’s recurring and refreshingly un-ironic awe of God, the soul and the spirit. Amid Brazilian bikini waxes, cheating lovers and trips to the 7-Eleven, Lasky negotiates a young woman’s world with true belief: “Save me O Lord...\/ Save me from abuse and wisdom and red hot sin.” Lasky deftly handles holy subjects in an unholy, and yet never disrespectful, manner... In the end it is Lasky’s relationship to her God that inspires her best and makes this a surprising and worthwhile read: “To the fire in his heart and the fire in God\/ That makes the whole world\/ Thump in a beating music, heartbeats and mountains\/ that makes the bluebird in the tree.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe heady, ascentionist quality of the poems, their sheer passion, don’t just bounce off into a poemy haze, or create the careful discursive acts so prevalent today. There are actual visions. You know, visions: overpowering, otherwordly warnings full of blood stains and blessings and blinding light. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCynthia Arrieu-King, \u003ci\u003eDIAGRAM\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is kind of like (for girls of the prairies, born in the late ’70s) getting chapped lips at a slumber party, after an intense round of Cyndi Lauper lip-synching\/dance performance moves, in the fifth grade or so. Or, maybe, it is also like chewing off the edge of your hangnail in the wintertime, and then walking home from a bar in your static-inducing hat, and then getting in the soft and dirty sheets of your bed to warm up. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOlivia Cronk, \u003ci\u003eBookslut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLasky’s poems are violent and enigmatic, but also sensual and light-handed. Her often casual tone is balanced by themes of self-exploration, astonishment and confusion. Awe is a search for both God and love; God’s love, but mundane love too. Lasky is most successful at her simplest successful and perhaps even awesome \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSarah Egelman, \u003ci\u003eLocal IQ\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou get the feeling that Lasky’s voice is one we’re going to be hearing from for a long time, and AWE has that irreplaceable quality all good books have: Once you pick it up, it’s hard to put down. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJay Robinson, \u003ci\u003eBarn Owl Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLasky is a poet of amazing phrases and clear insights in such short, contained bursts, poking through and past what isn’t important, straight into the essence of things. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRob Mclennan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDorothea Lasky’s first book, Awe, is an impressive, powerful and eclectic collection of poems that, at its best, fuses a sense of religious wonder, confusion and - surprisingly enough - faith with a conversational sincerity akin to Frank O’Hara. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJess Grover, \u003ci\u003eInDigest\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe logic in these poems is surreal yet wholly felt. Through her specific, strange, and always riveting voice, Lasky reveals truths about the self in relation to all that inspires awe, be it a sexual relationship and its unraveling or metaphysical confrontations with holiness. These poems read as prophetic and yet incredibly immediate. The poet honors her friendship with a named, real poet and God’s relationship with the souls of lovers. Despite the range of the collection, the poems feel of a piece because of the brave imagistic leaps throughout the works. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmerican Poet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith an odd blend of brutality and delicacy, Dorothea Lasky constructs an entire individual psychology in 70 short pages. The tone is ingenue, direct, at times percussively flat. And it is completely engaged. There is seemingly no distance between speaker and speech, writer and word. It’s a complete investment that demands the same of the reader, and rewards it with vivid glimpses of the workings of a different mind, for the “I” here, quite refreshingly, makes no claim to universality. Instead, it flaunts its idiosyncrasies, and it is, after all, idiosyncrasies that are interesting... All in all, this poetry is extremely engaging--it’s fast, determined, and generous; it is not emotion recollected in tranquility, but emotion still in the grip of its own feeling, and believing in itself. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCole Swenson, \u003ci\u003eLana Turner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDorothea Lasky’s debut, Awe, has the force of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”, the messiness of a battlefield amputation, the candor of a child who asks, “Were you born like that?”, and the craving of a customer who orders a banquet spread containing only marzipan and raw heart. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eStephanie Anderson, \u003ci\u003eGrowler Poetry Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END REVIEWS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: September 1, 2007\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517247 (6x8.75 88pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dorothea Lasky","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196869262,"sku":"9781933517247","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196869272,"sku":"9781933517254","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/awe.jpg?v=1417558752"},{"product_id":"thin-kimono","title":"Thin Kimono","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/michael-earl-craig\"\u003eMichael Earl Craig\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eI believe in tacos and mortification.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMichael Earl Craig’s third full-length collection of expertly crystalline yet wholly unexpected renderings of everyday existence. A masterwork of lucid dreaming, \u003ci\u003eThin Kimono\u003c\/i\u003e continues Craig’s singular breed of brilliant and generously uncanny poems, reflecting, while utterly slanting, the idiosyncrasies of daily existence in the oft-incomprehensible world. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Craig’s third book, like his first two, is a playful and straightforward examination of the everyday turned on its head. His offbeat remarks are a source of surprising amusement and yet somehow familiar. Craig is a fun read, and his accessibility makes his latest book an enjoyable experience for new and seasoned readers alike.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA kind of Whitman for post-Google America...For Craig, there are no truths which don’t acknowledge how little we could ever know of the world, and how beautiful a place it is as a result.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMatt McBride, \u003ci\u003eNew Pages\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe intuitive leap, grounded by rhyme and subtler resonances, is early warning that the logic of \u003cem\u003eThin Kimono\u003c\/em\u003e is that of dreams. Things are named. Time is fundamentally linear. But causality is obscured... Even in the seemingly random firings of a contemporary consciousness, there is a pedestrian suggestion of the possibility of explaining the mind by replicating its moves. And yet the singular consciousness that speaks these poems remains mysterious.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMegan Levad, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUltimately, it’s what Craig sees, and how he sees it, that makes these poems work so well. “Clear writing is clear thinking,” he writes in “Humans.” The obvious danger in such perspicuity is that stripping away all the stylistic and poetic drapery is a bit like being naked in front of a crowded room of insurance salesmen: there’s nothing to conceal one’s human frailties from their prying, insatiable eyes. That Michael Earl Craig’s poems are continually as lean, well-proportioned, and finely chiseled as that other Renaissance giant, Michelangelo’s David (no relation), proves he has nothing at all to hide.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Sewell, \u003ci\u003eColdfront\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCraig’s \u003cem\u003eThin Kimono\u003c\/em\u003e offers an original and gratifying reading experience. The book provides many poems that are worth sharing with non-poets, not only because the lines are enjoyable, but also because the candor and straightforward nature of the work dispels the myth that poetry is abstract and inaccessible.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKaren Wood, \u003ci\u003eFront Porch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt may be unfair to drag biography onto the stage, but Michael Earl Craig lives in Montana and shoes horses for a living, and these frequently seem like poems that might be spoken by someone who lives in Montana and shoes horses for a living. They are precise, cool, metallic poems, laconic and wry. They are the poems of observation and spun-off thought that might easily arise from solitary work. The language is plain, unflowery; it’s the disjointed logic of the images that turns the lines into spare poetry. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKatie Umans, \u003ci\u003eFiction Writers’ Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: September 1, 2010\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517469 (6x8.5 128pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Michael Earl Craig","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196869982,"sku":"9781933517469","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196869992,"sku":"9781933517469","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/thinkimono.jpg?v=1419362522"},{"product_id":"the-most-of-it","title":"The Most of It","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/mary-ruefle\"\u003eMary Ruefle\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eThe paperback edition of this title is currently sold out. It will be back in stock soon.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDelectable fables with questionable morals—sweet and sharp and over too soon. These thirty stories deliver the soft touch and the sucker punch with stunning aplomb. Ducks, physicists, detectives, and the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e all make appearances. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e By turns droll, witty, heartfelt, and fanciful the pieces in \u003cem\u003eThe Most of It\u003c\/em\u003e, whatever you choose to call them, offer something for every taste and temperament, which seems only fitting for a book that is dedicated “TO YOU.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonreview.net\/microreview-mary-ruefle-the-most-of-it-kathleen-rooney\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eKathleen Rooney, \u003cem\u003eBoston Review \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuefle...has created in \u003cem\u003eThe Most Of It\u003c\/em\u003e a deceptively complicated collection of episodes easy to get into, and precisely captivating.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.avclub.com\/articles\/the-most-of-it,2940\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eEllen Wernecke, \u003cem\u003eOnion AV Club\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis collection showcases Ruefle’s considerable lyrical powers and memorable flights of fancy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat makes this so funny is that the obviously insane theme is presented deadpan, as an essay, with a logically developed (and screwily persuasive) argument. The fatuousness of the idea is balanced against the determined intelligence of the logic. But the logical order is intrinsically a narrative as well, because Ruefle’s sense of language and character is so vivid that the real fascination of the story comes from imagining the person who would create this piece of prose and the events that led to its creation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/journal\/article.html?id=236662\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBrian Phillips, \u003cem\u003ePoetry\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“... Despite having published ten books of poetry, Ruefle has cultivated a style that is resolutely idiosyncratic and outsiderish without seeming bitter or alienated.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.sinkreview.org\/reviews\/mary-ruefle-the-most-of-it.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSink Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUltimately what makes Ruefle herself is not her control of the long sentence but her tone. There is an innocence that is almost hard to believe, so rare is it in contemporary poetry. Ruefle’s characteristic speaker looks at the world with fresh eyes, maintains a childlike relationship to life, untainted by irony or cynicism or bitterness. It is easy to dismiss this view of the world as naive or sentimental or merely “charming” or “eccentric,” but to do so is to miss the poetic philosophy behind it. Ruefle is a perfect exemplar of Keats’s negative capability, one who stays within “uncertainties, mysteries and doubts” about the world without any “irritable reaching after fact \u0026amp; reason.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJason Koo, \u003cem\u003eThe Missouri Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are many pieces that are peculiar, but lovely, flash-fiction or story-poem hybrids...These very short pieces are like butter mints wrapped in jeweled cellophane. Each is excruciatingly lovely, but it dissolves quickly as the page turns. Readers, however are not saddened by this ephemeral nature for Ruefle’s style is so manifold, every turn summons something new.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eValerie Pell, \u003cem\u003eThird Coast \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am surprised by Mary...that her 2008 publication, \u003cem\u003eThe Most of It\u003c\/em\u003e, is neither lyric nor narrative in the conventional sense. While some of the poems (“The Bench,” for example, is reprinted) bear the trace of the lyric I\/eye whose genius is the ability to articulate the movement of the mind from uncertainty to transcendence, the majority of these prose poems resist closure, celebrate multiplicity, speak at a skewed angle from the familiar, and address language’s failures to ever fully grasp all of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.lemonhound.blogspot.com\/2009\/03\/emily-carr-on-mary-ruefle.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eEmily Carr, \u003cem\u003eLemon Hound\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: June 1, 2008\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517292 (5x8.5 80pp, paperback)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781933517308 (5x8.5 80pp, limited edition hardcover)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781950268276 (e-book*)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mary Ruefle","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196870892,"sku":"9781933517292","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196870902,"sku":"9781933517308","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":50255103459632,"sku":null,"price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/mostofit.jpg?v=1328837387"},{"product_id":"i-heart-your-fate","title":"I Heart Your Fate","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/anthony-mccann\"\u003eAnthony McCann\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eIt’s strange to be seen, I’ve said to a tree\u003cbr\u003eTo have trembled so much while breathing the air\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith humor, irreverence, and sincere longing, McCann’s poems sever the distinction between dream and reality, person and animal. “I don’t have a body to feel afraid,” writes McCann, and these poems, bald and imaginative, almost convince the reader it must be so, save for the fact that they are so vitally, essentially human. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Reading [\u003ci\u003eI Heart Your Fate\u003c\/i\u003e] is like wading into the Adriatic Sea on an overcast July morning and feeling something slimy grip around your calf—so you look down and feel relieved that (of course, haha) it’s just seaweed—then you realize it’s actually *not* just seaweed, but rather the pulsing tentacle of some creature so slobbery and horrifying not even your own mother would believe your description of it. That is, if you lived to tell them, which you won’t. Sucked under, friend, into the unforgiving brine. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJeremy Schmall, \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Poetry Blog\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThroughout this playful, heartfelt and enriching collection, McCann demonstrates that the truth surrounds us all; our best way of connecting with it is through compassion and love. With equal parts exuberance and dread, the speaker encourages us to “waste the whole day feeling these things.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNate Pritts, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo find yourself in the middle of an Anthony McCann poem is to be surrounded by a rich, descriptive elegance reminiscent of the overpowering sense of collision and clarity that we call a dream. What appears simple becomes infinitely dynamic and fractured, objects and landscapes shift and wreck, a disturbing logic aligns what we don’t acknowledge with what we never expected. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNick Sturm, \u003ci\u003eH_ngm_n\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eI ♥ Your Fate\u003c\/i\u003e is a lyric book of poems that will make you feel like picking up a guitar, a paintbrush, dance your ass off alone in your room. That is to say, McCann will make you feel alive. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMatthew Dickman, \u003ci\u003eTin House\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnthony McCann’s third collection of poetry reveals a preoccupation with how we encounter, experience and process the world around us. He places emphasis on processes of perception and modes of discovery, and the objects in McCann’s view are charged with vitality: material is imbued with life, the inanimate is animated. And though at times what’s seen is threatening or ominous, these poems are ultimately celebratory, and the world is one in which “it’s nice to be held while watching the waves.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJennifer Moore, \u003ci\u003eAnother Chicago Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow wonderful to be “hammered in distinctness”—that is, with clarity and detail—and also to BE hammered “indistinctness” (i.e. the opposite—unclear, ambiguous, vague, connotative) at the very same time. There’s something nearly primordial about these poems. We read them as they come to be, reaching prophetically, apocalyptically, lovingly, and elliptically toward their own ends, which are our ends—our FATE—as we read them. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMatt Hart, \u003ci\u003eColdfront\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMcCann’s book is funny, beautifully crafted, challenging, and refreshing. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLuisa Muradyan, \u003ci\u003eFront Porch Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/machineproject.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e \u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/machineproject.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e \u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/machineproject.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e \u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2011\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517513 (6x8.5 96pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Anthony McCann","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196872032,"sku":"9781933517513","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196872042,"sku":"9781933517513","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/iheartyourfate.jpg?v=1417557697"},{"product_id":"christopher-sunset","title":"Christopher Sunset","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/geoffrey-nutter\"\u003eGeoffrey Nutter\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e Poetry as a complete reinvention of the known world, converting acts of attention into rituals of quietly unfolding spectacle. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBearing the visionary inheritance of ancient Chinese poets and early 20th century painters, Geoffrey Nutter casts a penetrating light into the colorfully shifting landscapes of modern existence. \u003ci\u003eChristopher Sunset\u003c\/i\u003e is a “correct and masterly play of forms in light,” reinvigorating the architecture of society’s captive and captivating imagination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2011 Sheila Motton Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Christopher Sunset gives its readers many reasons to read and reread, especially those readers who glory in the imagination’s ability to enrich the phenomenal world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDan Chelotti, \u003ci\u003eThe Kenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA keen-eyed guide, Nutter has a gift for logging details as he trips out his long sentences in clipped lines. A confidential tone and intriguing observations hook you. The flotsam cataloged in “Electricity” is all too real. But “Broken shells, tire treads, rusted aluminum pull-tabs” are a foil for Nutter’s slight of hand. Patterns emerge. Upriver, the “embers of the bridge” become an enchanted “chorus of embers.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJeffrey Cyphers Wright, \u003ci\u003eThe Brooklyn Rail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr. Nutter is one of those rare poets who, like John Ash or Pablo Neruda, is possessed of a genius that simultaneously opens out towards a field of mystical imagery—laden with the possibility of transcendence—while remaining firmly grounded in the matter-of-fact, stubborn currency of the everyday, the here-and-now. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHarold Graves, \u003ci\u003eHarold’s Sketchbook\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese are generous poems, full of the impulse both to pay attention to things as they are and to allow them to become whatever other things their deeper selves contain or lead to. It is, again, the sort of generosity that comes to most of us in dreams where we too, as in this book’s final echo of the Song of Songs, might say, “I sleep ... but my heart is awake” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKate Angus, \u003ci\u003eColdfront\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThank goodness for Geoffrey Nutter, whose poetry seems to be powered equally by sunlight, virtue, wonder, and humility. Christopher Sunset immediately signals to the reader that its core values reside in the art and practice of being human. Time and again, Nutter’s finely crafted lines and sentences unerringly execute a clean delineation of subject or object. With deft breaks and descriptions, and with a steady commitment to the possibilities of the human psyche (rather than its limitations), Nutter is able to create an enlivening sense of hope as he embodies poetic principles that begin in quiet understanding and lead to praise. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNate Pritts, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2010\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517445 (5.5x8.5 80pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Geoffrey Nutter","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196873242,"sku":"9781933517445","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196873252,"sku":"9781933517445","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/cscover.png?v=1681942822"},{"product_id":"black-life","title":"Black Life","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/dorothea-lasky\"\u003eDorothea Lasky\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e Emotion recollected not in tranquility, but in radically felt and affirming intensity. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn her brazen follow-up to \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/products\/awe\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eAWE\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, Dorothea Lasky cries out beyond prophecy and confession, through to an even more powerful empathy. Infused with dark and urgent feeling, \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e is the fullest existence of poetry, continually on the verge of becoming pure substance and sensation. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e ...While [Lasky] is thus endlessly confused by reviewers surprised at her “earnest sincerity” with the allegedly self-absorbed “confessional” poets of mid-century, for me Lasky has most in common with a stylistically diverse line of usually forgotten and mostly soulsick writers who’ve inhabited language literally, and risked using the poem as a kind of depersonalizing, radically signifying material ... I think immediately of Penny Arcade, Chris Kraus, and Eileen Myles, Catullus, John Wieners, Ariana Reines, Tao Lin, Tracy Emin... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobert Dewhurst, \u003ci\u003eON: Contemporary Practice #2\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe beautiful thing about Lasky, in all her work, but particularly here, is her ability to create that same sense of earnestness, the sense that she is telling you a secret over dinner, in something as confessional as “Mike…” or in a poem that is a little more tongue in cheek like “Have You Ever Read a Book Called \u003ci\u003eAwe\u003c\/i\u003e?” Every poem counts in \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e, and that would be an achievement in itself if the poems weren’t so damn fantastic. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eInDigest Picks, \u003ci\u003eInDigest Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDorothea Lasky is a poet of petulant grace. The particular way she does is she carves into the alphabet for poetry’s hurtfully buried, metastasized epiphanies of black life. Thence comes the fragments of jagged wonder she strings together to decorate her verse with pretty conflict. Her wonder (love and awe) is heavy and plain, stilted like she’s writing after a concussion, but the generalness of language (many fundamental ideas repeating, put forth directly) is thick—it spills over the edges of its meaning into the scary beyond. She meets herself in conversation with the space outside experience’s edges... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonely Christopher, \u003ci\u003eThe The Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough cut of the same cloth as her debut, Awe, this second book is more grown up, darker, burdened with greater weight and responsibility... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust being is more active and powerful than most people care to imagine, and that’s why Lasky’s \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e isn’t something beyond and deeper than everyday life; it is the depth and beyond-ness that already exist in it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJake Fournier, \u003ci\u003eI Will Always Be Drunk\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOh, the sentences, the odd narratives by Dorothea Lasky that make up her second poetry collection, \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e. I admire her performative confidence, the arms of her poems calling look, look. Lasky is a poet of sentences, of gestures, both grand and small, and many times concurrently, even contradictory, but rarely in opposition. Lasky is the author of grand gestures, open-heart narratives and a sometimes too-wise, nearly naïve narrator with childlike cruelty... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cb\u003eRob Mclennan\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn voyeuristic times like these, it might just seem like the natural next step that a poet’s relationship to her poems would grow to resemble that between a reality star and the cameras hidden in her house. The “I’’s have it: Lasky is effervescently present in every word of her marvelous second volume... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Brodeur, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDorothea Lasky’s new book, \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e, brims with the chaos of real life and real people, fighting to express themselves when shiny and happy words aren’t sufficient. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmy Henry, \u003ci\u003eGently Read Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEncountering a Dorothea Lasky poem requires a willingness to turn over all the rocks, to take a good, long look at the creepy-crawlies wriggling in the earth. She will force you to acknowledge the blackness of blood pumping underneath your skin or the claustrophobia of loneliness, but she will not allow you to forget there is light, and that it can exist in knowing another person... At her best, Lasky is “holding on to things” as tightly as she did in \u003ci\u003eAWE\u003c\/i\u003e, rendering images of moons filled with white feathers and the ghosts that inhabit our bodies with delightful precision. \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e offers a glimpse of empathy and humanity, “the wildness beyond” in each of us, even when the future looks bleak. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKristen Evans, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe poems in \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e absolutely sting and shine, often all at once. But the “shine” is what ultimately shows Lasky’s remarkable talents; I’ve read many great poems that are philosophical, many that are humorous, and many more that are sad or depressing, but I haven’t read many great poems that are joyful, that celebrate life. I don’t even think I realized this until I found myself “joying along” to \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKristin Abraham, \u003ci\u003eH_NGM_N\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe collection is varied and intense. Being about a decade older than Lasky, there were moments when I wanted to tell her to relax a bit and slow down. To realize that not all problems will be resolved as quickly as we’d like, but that it’s okay to wait them out. The vivid descriptions and staccato action at times felt like it was too edgy to get close to, like the wild person at the party who gets the attention and the laughs but who is terrifying to be alone with for more than a moment. Yet the liveliness prevails and relays an enthusiasm that I hope essentially remains. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Black Sheep Dances\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe poems in \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e feel like anti-poems. Forthright and studiedly conversational, they are brave (and audacious)—think rock lyric\/nursery rhymes à la Hal Sirowitz or Eileen Myles. A tongue-in-cheek puerility coupled with a talky voice establishes presence and access. Humor and pathos bleed together in lines like, “I am just so very sad now.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJeffrey Cyphers Wright, \u003ci\u003ethe Brooklyn Rail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first time I read \u003ci\u003eBlack Life\u003c\/i\u003e, Lasky gave me permission to never ask for permission again; every time I’ve read it since, she’s reminded me of the exchange, of the delicate equilibrium a poet must strike to empower the reader at the same time she causes them to tremble..” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKatie Condon, \u003ci\u003eGrist Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END REVIEWS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2010\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517438 (6.5x10 77pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dorothea Lasky","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196874072,"sku":"9781933517537","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196874082,"sku":"9781933517438","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/blacklife.jpg?v=1419361462"},{"product_id":"a-little-white-shadow","title":"A Little White Shadow","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/mary-ruefle\"\u003eMary Ruefle\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSelectively painting over much of a forgotten nineteenth-century book, Ruefle’s ninth publication brings new meaning to an old story. What remains visible is delicate poetry: artfully rendered, haunted by its former self, yet completely new.\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Alongside her justly known poems, Ruefle (Tristimania, 2003) also crafts what she calls \"erasures,\" found texts from which she has crossed out almost all the words, leaving only a tiny poem’s worth per page; the latter make up this book. In this pocket-sized reproduction of a whited-out 19th-century volume, Ruefle etches haiku-like minifables, sideways aphorisms, and hauntingly perplexing koans (\"the dead\/ borrow so little from\/ the past\/ as if they were alive\") from what must have been an unusual text to begin with (Ruefle borrows the book’s original title). As much a statement about the act of reading as the act of writing, this is a strange and lovely work by a singular poet. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e (Starred Review)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuefle’s results are pleasingly polyglot, as if she’s found in this single document an occasion to abstract a dozen poetries, each with its signature poems. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRay McDaniel, \u003cem\u003eThe Constant Critic\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMary Ruefle’s A Little White Shadow is a beautiful book of found poems. The poet has Tippexed out most of each page of an old book of the same name to find short, often surreal, poems. The original is reprinted in exquisite facsimile. It reminds me of Tom Phillips’ A Humument, but this set of texts is less adorned - and all the better for that. If phrases such as ‘It \/ was my duty to keep \/ the \/ piano \/ filled with roses’ or ‘he \/ quickly \/ spoke fluently in many languages \/ a human humming bird’ make you smile (and they do me) then you’ll enjoy the fleeting pleasures tactile, visual and literary of this neat little book. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRupert Loydell, \u003cem\u003eStride Magazine \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe resulting emotion in this book slips past the mind like sugar through the fingers. It’s as if one is dealing only with the ghost of a narrative--the chosen words forming a new entity. The book raises beautiful imagery in the reader’s mind, and questions about what belongs to time and tradition, and what belongs to chance. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCynthia Arrieu King, \u003cem\u003eOctopus Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis work offers another angle on collaboration—can one collaborate with a text itself rather than with an author? The validity of erasure texts and other forms of collage is also frequently questioned, and yet Ruefle’s process here is a condensed version of what all poets do—consider the field of language and make careful choices. By selecting words with large fields of connotations, she develops a rich, haunting atmosphere that hints at narrative while leaving it in suspension. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCole Swensen, \u003cem\u003eThe Poetry Foundation\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the tight and tiny A Little White Shadow, Mary Ruefle tries her hand at what might be called a book-length erasure (a series of untitled erasures, if you wish), to swift and satisfying results.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Deming, \u003cem\u003eColdfront\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe act of erasure represents a kind of poetic anorexia, and as a verbal whittling down, the poems edge toward a Beckettian silence. Ruefle’s poems ... recall the very considered sparsity of haiku. But the skeletal striptease is not an essentialist one. The original texts are not being subtracted down to some fundamental truth, but instead become textually overdetermined. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLily Saint, \u003cem\u003eHarp \u0026amp; Altar\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith its competing visual contexts (completely obliterated, partially obliterated, and unobliterated) A Little White Shadow is true to its title, operating at the level of shadow: self-consciously partial, shifting beneath the writer’s hand and the reader’s gaze, simultaneously uncovering and recovering, restless, transient, and transitive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEmily Carr, \u003cem\u003eHow2\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the past decade, [Ruefle] has been producing “erasures” ... but because this is done on the printed page rather than with the delete key, the result is an investigation on the texture of silence, the imprint of the unsaid, the unknown, the forgotten. The volume erased becomes a layering of silence, a study of how some words fade while others remain; how meaning can be reconfigured by time; how words can sometimes reposition themselves in memory; and, finally, how the unspoken and the retracted can establish a rhythm of their own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAkiko Busch, \u003cem\u003eAmerican Craft\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c!--END REVIEWS--\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2006\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517032 (4.5x5.75 48pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780933517070 (4.5x5.75 48pp, limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mary Ruefle","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":196874322,"sku":"9781933517032","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":196874332,"sku":"9780933517070","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/littlewhiteshadow.jpg?v=1511972170"},{"product_id":"nine-worthies","title":"Nine Worthies","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/caroline-knox\"\u003eCaroline Knox\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDesc\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab4\"\u003eMore\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003c!--DESC--\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Nine Worthies are men and women in Boston and Newport in 1756. Nathaniel Smibert (1734-1756) is painting their portraits.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis hand-sewn limited edition has a letterpress cover and design influenced by 18th century typesetting and binding techniques. Told in nine individual portraits, interwoven with the perspective of the artist, \u003cem\u003eNine Worthies\u003c\/em\u003e is a stunning book from eminent poet Caroline Knox. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSOLD OUT\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END DESC--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Snappy bright, linguistically athletic, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, [Knox’s] poems nevertheless hold a depth at the core of their whimsy. She casts a keen eye on humankind across the centuries, but it is not an unkind one. Her latest book is, well, rather hard to describe. Or maybe not hard to describe, just hard to codify, to place within the framework of contemporary publishing. But it is indeed an intriguing, strangely captivating thing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOpen Books\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eNine Worthies\u003c\/em\u003e is an interesting step back into the 18th century viewed through a modern perspective.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRenee Emerson, \u003cem\u003eNew Pages\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn these poems, the many voices that emerge seem eager not so much to communicate, though their utterances are contained formally within a communicative mode, but to come into being as they speak. Knox’s poems make visible what we all experience abstractly: that language is fluid and that, like most living systems with which we interact, it makes us as we make it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSarah Eggers, \u003cem\u003eThe The Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab4\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--MORE--\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e\"The End of Something: Nine Worthies and Some Paintings by Nathaniel Smibert\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eNine Worthies\u003c\/em\u003e, a work of prose and poetry operating as a sort of historical novella, deals with the life and times of Nathaniel Smibert (1734-1756), portrait painter and son of America’s first portraitist, John Smibert (1688-1751). The father had come to America from England in 1729 with George Berkeley the philosopher, in a utopian scheme to found a theological college in Bermuda. The scheme never worked out, John Smibert stayed in Boston to paint, and his son Nathaniel followed the calling of painter. Their studio acted as the art school and museum for America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNathaniel painted a great many works between 1750 and 1756 and then he died suddenly at age 22; no one knows how or why. (Lead poisoning? An epidemic off a ship? Tuberculosis?) He carefully followed his father’s style and content, in the English tradition of Lely and Kneller. The studio went on to become a gathering-place for the onset of Romantic painting: Copley, Trumbull, West, the Peales, many others. So the early death of Nathaniel was The End of Something, the end of part of America’s Englishness, at least in painting. And the Worthies, as they spout their notions, are unaware that much is changing, that they are on the cusp of both the Seven Years’ War and the Revolution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs far as we know, Nathaniel didn’t leave a notebook, so there’s no record of how many portraits there were. To write something about the period and subject, I had to choose a group and a number of characters, so I took the Nine from the medieval tradition of the Nine Worthies. The list depended on who the list-maker thought was worthy -- Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, King Arthur? I picked sitters showing a diverse crowd, such as the elderly widow Mary Davie, Peter Harrison the architect, and Samson Occum the Mohegan missionary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMuch historical and art historical research has been done on the Smiberts. Maybe we won’t learn more, or not much more. Curiously, this fact made the writing assignment very inviting to me -- a subject with lots of holes in it, a theme with huge gaps. It felt modernist and post-modernist. \u003cem\u003eNine Worthies\u003c\/em\u003e is an experiment: facts and transitions are left out not because I was avoiding them or despising them, but because I didn’t even have them. But the facts that we do have about the subject fit together well. It’s the Age of Reason, of information, exploration, the Royal Society, the scientific method. (And it’s the Age of Satire, of giving it and receiving it.) The Worthies are obsessed with the past, with ancestors and family connections, and with material culture and money.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCaroline Knox\u003cbr\u003eFall 2010\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c!--END MORE--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: September 15, 2010\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517483 (7x10.5 64pp, limited edition paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Caroline Knox","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Paperback","offer_id":196874432,"sku":"9781933517483","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/nineworthies.jpg?v=1417559600"},{"product_id":"the-to-sound","title":"The To Sound","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/eric-baus\"\u003eEric Baus\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e “Birds with extremely long necks. Cassiopeia. A sister. A Marco Polo. A somnambulist. A documentary on the voyages of Columbus. A cartographer. Star charts. Young intellectuals in black robes. Jean-Michel Basquiat. More birds and still more birds. A mathematician. All these things appear in \u003ci\u003eThe To Sound\u003c\/i\u003e’s beautifully warped cosmology. This is a stunning book that builds its own world, a world of ambiguous relations and loaded words; a lyrical world that explores the unstated connections between things. If de Chirico was a poet... if Satie was a poet... if Maya Deren was a poet... and if they collaborated together, they might have written this book.” —\u003ci\u003eJuliana Spahr\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2002 Verse Prize, selected by Forrest Gander\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Baus writes of a place somewhere in space that is at once in our world and existing alongside side of it. Where one expects a thing of this world, in its place, in the line, on the page, there is some other thing that delightfully trips one up while reading. Like this: “If I say my eyes are quotation marks pulled across the sky, I mean the way a beaten wing is parallel to treading water.” Oh, of course. That’s what I’m talking about. Poetry with a kick. It is not clean. It is not easy or pretty. But it is quite a ride.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bookslut.com\/poetry\/2004_06_002639.php\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eOlivia Cronk, \u003ci\u003eBookslut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike a synaesthete for whom numbers might evoke a certain color, months a particular taste, or the alphabet’s letters a specific smell, Baus uses the full palette of the body to bring the inner and outer world into provisional alignment. The body becomes the syntax that holds sense together. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.webdelsol.com\/Double_Room\/7\/Eric_Baus_Reviewed.htm\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eMitchum Huehls, \u003ci\u003eDouble Room \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eArranged as a quasi-epistolary collection of five long poems, \u003ci\u003eThe To Sound\u003c\/i\u003e revels in lyrical language and syntactical displacement as it maps a unique and humanly occupied universe. Aspects of longing and repeated failed articulation, or the attempt at untangling what was said as opposed to what was heard or intended, are woven throughout the book. ... Selected by Forrest Gander for the Verse Prize, \u003ci\u003eThe To Sound\u003c\/i\u003e is an impressive debut. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.raintaxi.com\/the-to-sound\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eJane Sprague, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the originality of his language and its tangible desire to connect to--without defining or owning--the Other, Baus’s work moves in a manner wholly opposed to sentimentality; such work as this, in fact, is its antidote. . . \u003ci\u003eThe To Sound\u003c\/i\u003e hums in the ear of the reader open to hearing it, loa and lobe, known and unknowable, its whispers sounding (like Whitman’s sea birds before it), want want want. I desire, therefore you are: Thee, to sound into being.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Tod Edgerton, \u003ci\u003eMantis \u003c\/i\u003e(Issue 7)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe To Sound\u003c\/i\u003e is not so much a collection that expects us to derive pleasure solely from rhythm and sound any more than it expects its meaning to be transparent through language. It is, rather, an illumination of the nature of language, of looking, and of listening.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMonica Fambrough, \u003ci\u003eOctopus Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication date: March 1, 2004\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780972348744 (6x8 80pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Eric Baus","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199730262,"sku":"9780972348744","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/tothesound.jpg?v=1329328965"},{"product_id":"take-it","title":"Take It","description":"\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joshua-beckman\"\u003eJoshua Beckman\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTake It\u003c\/i\u003e is a gift of expansive and expressive generosity. The poems masterfully combine traditional and contemporary concerns and speech in attending to a degraded, yet wondrous world.\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/collections\/audiobooks\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlso available as an audiobook\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Joshua Beckman’s \u003ci\u003eTake It\u003c\/i\u003e is full of the sort of casually brilliant poems that keep you loving poetry. Witty, contemporary, wry and compassionate, it just gets better with every reading. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.stridemagazine.co.uk\/Stride%20mag2010\/January%202010\/Making%20Waves.htm\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eNathan Thompson, \u003ci\u003eStride Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn what may be his best book, Beckman wistfully takes to the road and does the incredible work of writing poems full of desire, for a world in the midst of radical upheaval.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublisher’s Weekly, \u003c\/i\u003estarred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you take a broad squint at our nation’s new poets you can find two general strategies: poets who are carrying the torch, and poets who are using it to start fires. And then we have Joshua Beckman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.believermag.com\/issues\/200905\/?read=review_beckman\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eDaniel Handler, \u003ci\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the three years since his previous book, \u003ci\u003eShake\u003c\/i\u003e, it would seem that Beckman’s voice has aged about thirty years. Some will call it a coming into his own, a fulfillment, reaching full maturation. But I am inclined to describe it as an awakening. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/makemag.com\/review-take-it\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eColin Huerter, \u003ci\u003eMAKE Literary Productions\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe had a down-to-earth appeal that is often missing in the (at times) highfalutin literary world... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/bombmagazine.org\/article\/4469\/joshua-beckman\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eSusie DeFord, \u003ci\u003eBOMBlog\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are moments in life when you encounter a book or album or piece of art that fundamentally changes the way you read or talk or think. \u003ci\u003eTake It\u003c\/i\u003e is one of those books for me. Beyond being Beckman’s best work or something fresh and unique in the crowded space of contemporary poetry, the book reminds of what exactly poetry can do: turning the understated into something unforgettable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTim Lockridge, \u003ci\u003eCorduroy Books Blog\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeckman’s genuine sorrow and grim perception create an impassioned dialogue between the values the Romantics held dear (love of truth, beauty, Nature) and a modern world that could care less.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/rattle.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/take-it-by-joshua-beckman\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eVirginia Konchan, \u003ci\u003eRattle Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoshua Beckman’s fourth collection consists of a book-length lyric sequence that roams from the personal to the social to the cosmic. In voices ranging from the jaunty to the wise, addressing figures both named and unnamed, Beckman unites the sharply honed attention of Dickinsonian lyricism (“There are times when one’s attention \/ is taken by beautiful things \/ most fully, I imagine, in loss”) to the bravado of Whitmanian expansion (“In Colorado, in Oregon, upon \/ each beloved fork, a birthday is celebrated. \/ I miss each and everyone of my friends. \/ I believe in getting something for nothing”). This ineffable “something” recurs consistently throughout Take It, but rather that diffuse meaning, it compels the numerous speakers, as well as the reader, to seek out what “something\" might be: an “ether acre,” “they mask,” “the grief of the body,” “a God concerned with only weather,” or “full of only silence.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmerican Poet Vol. 37, Fall 2009\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoshua Beckman’s fifth collection of poetry, \u003ci\u003eTake It\u003c\/i\u003e, a title suggesting both offer and imperative, is the product of a big heart and a far-ranging imagination. Published without titles, the poems read like non-sequiturs, each one unfolding with peculiar associations of imagery and thought. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/newpages.com\/bookreviews\/archive\/2009_07\/july2009_book_reviews.htm\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eJason Tandon, \u003ci\u003eNewPages \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Beckman’s] poems impress variously and enduringly, but it’s their range that astonishes foremost. In sixty-two pages—and with plenty of white space leftover—Beckman runs a dizzying gamut of images and motives. He’ll conjure his inner curmudgeon only to banish him in the next couplet. He’ll wax rhapsodic and then sardonic about love, children, the state of the nation, seventies cult classics, bananas. You want brio? He can do brio, but he’ll just as soon collapse under exhaustion. Beckman’s no schizoid; he’s just talented, is all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.fsgpoetry.com\/fsg\/2010\/04\/on-joshua-beckman.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eDan Piepenbring, \u003ci\u003eThe Farrar, Straus and Giroux Poetry Blog\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2009\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517377 (5x7 72pp, paperback and limited edition hardcover)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781950268306 (audiobook)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Joshua Beckman","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199789212,"sku":"9781933517377","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hard Cover","offer_id":199789222,"sku":"9781933517377","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":39837184229457,"sku":"9781950268306","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/takeit.jpg?v=1663684963"},{"product_id":"shake","title":"Shake","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joshua-beckman\"\u003eJoshua Beckman\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe world. I don't know. We sink. We\u003cbr\u003eare awkward. We lean. We fall into doors\u003cbr\u003eand we sink into those doors. The world.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe poems in \u003ci\u003eShake\u003c\/i\u003e come to us directly and intimately. Generous, fervent, full of fear and persistence, they resonate with the wildness and generosity of Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan and Whitman, turning the everyday into an encompassing, harrowing, humorous, and necessary vision. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e\u003ci\u003eShake\u003c\/i\u003e resonates, not with sentimentality, but with honesty. This work is as much an exploration of being knocked down as it is of getting up. And the success of \u003ci\u003eShake\u003c\/i\u003e lies in that juxtaposition of the meanness of the world with flashes of power, kindness, and insight. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.forewordreviews.com\/reviews\/shake\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eErica Wright, \u003ci\u003eForeWord Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeckman’s instinctive taste for formalism’s perks just peeps out of these odd little constructs (pantoum-like, at times). And the form helps, somehow, to build a rise in bitterness, a humor that is cutting and cynical and comprehensible. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOlivia Cronk, \u003ci\u003eBookslut \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe three long poems of Beckman’s fifth collection mourn the depravity of American urban life while celebrating (sometimes with a bit of irony) the fleeting transcendence of love, sex, and fun. Eschewing narrative in favor of episodic variations on the above, Beckman punctuates these extended meditations, comprising related poems grouped in series, with crystal-clear images rife with sad humor: “In heaven there’ll be umbrellas for children (their size).” The results are subversively disorienting and emotionally precise. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-1-933517-00-1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe world as Beckman sees it is as good as we make it—the tending is the point—and we are lucky to have him in our garden. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonreview.net\/poetry-microreview\/microreview-joshua-beckman-shake\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eKerri Webster, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoshua Beckman, perhaps more so than any other poet of his generation, has absorbed the lessons of the part fifty years of poetry and uses them to his advantage. In his fifth book, \u003cem\u003eShake\u003c\/em\u003e, Beckman’s untitled poems radiate with the sincerity and tragedy of Confessionalism, the romanticism and rowdiness of the Beats, the candor of the New York School, an invocation and simultaneous aversion of form worthy of both the neo-formalists and the ellipticals, and the attention to sound and politics of Language poetry. His poems, however, are more than their influences. Beckman brings an intelligence, humor, and voice that are his own. Beckman’s diction and syntax across lines forces the reader to slow down and take a harder look and a harder listen at life. These poems obsess and repeat, creating a feeling of tightness, but remain loose in tone; minimalism with maximal sensuality. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmerican Poet \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eShake\u003c\/em\u003e marks the moment of Beckman’s arrival into his own. It marks the moment when a substitute grace dissolves before real grace. If Ezra Pound is right that literature is “news that stays news,” then Joshua Beckman brings the news; we should listen to him. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/jacketmagazine.com\/33\/kelleher-beckman.shtml\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eCarl Kelleher, \u003ci\u003eJacket Magazine \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeckman’s traditionally a master at converting the personal to the existential in a deceptively plain-spoken way, and at encoding just what needs to be encoded to avoid self-satisfying autobiography. But from the opening section, “Shake”—the first of the book’s three sections, each a series of untitled poems--there’s a shift in tone from the first three books. ... A lot of the book’s frustration is controlled--and ultimately, purged--in the final and best section of the book, “New Haven.” I doubt if anyone's written so well with the southern Connecticut city in mind since Wallace Stevens and his ordinary evening. \u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/coldfrontmag.com\/reviews\/shake\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Deming, \u003ci\u003eColdfront Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery time I see \u003cem\u003eShake\u003c\/em\u003e, by Joshua Beckman, I can't help picking it up. And moreover, once I begin to read, it's difficult to put it down... All I, as a reader want to do is stand and stare at the foam and roar, its repetitions meditative, disturbing, slightly dangerous, but ultimately in check.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/lemonhound.blogspot.com\/2006\/08\/three-joshuas-beckman-clover-and-corey.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eSina Queyras, \u003ci\u003eLemon Hound\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2006\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517001 (6.5x8.5 88pp, paperback)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781933517049 (6.5x8.5 88pp, limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Joshua Beckman","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199793712,"sku":"9781933517001","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":199793722,"sku":"9781933517049","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/shake.jpg?v=1329332747"},{"product_id":"your-time-has-come","title":"Your Time Has Come","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joshua-beckman\"\u003eJoshua Beckman\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eHum of the universe\u003cbr\u003eI’m trying to sleep\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e150 extraordinary short lyrics which build a kind of meta-narrative throughout this haunting and powerful book. This collection showcases Beckman’s ability, even within the constraints of a few brief lines, to suggest and sustain emotions, landscapes, humor, and desire. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Beckman writes in much the same way that the book asks to be read—flipped through and glanced at, pieces missed and then discovered in a third or fourth reading, the whole collection a new thing every time you pick it up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bookslut.com\/poetry\/2004_09_003123.php\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eOlivia Cronk, \u003ci\u003eBookslut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNotes, memos, idioms, all cobbled into short short poems packaged in a tiny, beautiful book. A record of a hot, sad summer, these are lines for every day – flippant, needless, transcendent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/htmlgiant.com\/behind-the-scenes\/25-important-books-of-poetry-of-the-00s-by-brian-foley\/#more-20554\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBrian Foley, \u003ci\u003eHTMLGiant\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBrevity is the soul of wit. You've heard that before. These poems by Joshua Beckman are soulful, witty, and brief.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteve Potter, \u003ci\u003eThe Wandering Hermit Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: March 1, 2004\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780972348751 (4x6 160pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Joshua Beckman","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199797382,"sku":"9780972348751","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/yourtimehascome.jpg?v=1417562049"},{"product_id":"adventures-while-preaching-the-gospel-of-beauty","title":"Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joshua-beckman\"\u003eJoshua Beckman\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/matthew-rohrer\"\u003eMatthew Rohrer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eThis title is no longer available.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter their Fall 2002 whirlwind tour supporting their book of collaborative poems, \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/collections\/books\/products\/nice-hat-thanks\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eNice Hat. Thanks.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, acclaimed poets Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer return with a collection of their finest new poems recorded live as they rambled high and low. These poems, created in furious improvisational badinage and contemplative rumination, cover such topics as hillbillies, baseball, capitalism, paradise, fruit, spy satellites, and the trials and tribulations of the American Automobile. The result is an uproarious and continually surprising audio record of two vivid imaginations working overtime in no less than 19 states. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Beckman and Rohrer are both fine poets in their own right. They share a joyful earnestness, and aliveness to sensation, a geeky enthusiasm about the physical and emotional world. On \u003ci\u003eAdventures\u003c\/i\u003e, we can hear them piecing together their mutual thoughts; at times, the nervousness palpable in their humble, determined voices is touching. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime Out New York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c!--END REVIEWS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: October 1, 2003\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780972348782 (Audio CD)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Joshua Beckman","offers":[{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":199802462,"sku":"9780972348782","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/gospelofbeauty.jpg?v=1329333161"},{"product_id":"nice-hat-thanks","title":"Nice Hat. Thanks.","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joshua-beckman\"\u003eJoshua Beckman\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/matthew-rohrer\"\u003eMatthew Rohrer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eNice Hat. Thanks.\u003c\/i\u003e...the reprint! Hand-stamped by Joshua Beckman; each cover is unique.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNice Hat. Thanks.\u003c\/i\u003e is an innovative book based on the recorded improvised poetic collaborations between two award-winning poets, Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer. Comprised of poems ranging from a few words to several pages, \u003ci\u003eNice Hat. Thanks.\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of transcriptions of these clever, often funny, and stylistically subtle collaborations between two innovative poetic voices engaged in serious play. Live public performances of these collaborations have met with excitement and enthusiasm across the country. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSOLD OUT\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e \u003ci\u003eNice Hat. Thanks.\u003c\/i\u003e gives everything away on the front cover. The title (one of the book’s two-line poems), is exactly right—witty, unexpected, and unpretentious. The reader who goes in expecting more of the same will not be disappointed. ... The poems within are not composed or crafted; they emerge—in this case, from the poets’ improvisational poetic collaborations...Instead of trying to create an illusion of slick uniformity, the authors allow their choppy lines and abrupt shifts of meaning to govern the book’s aesthetic, and the result is delightful. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMonique van den Berg, \u003ci\u003eBookslut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer read together at the St. George Poetry Festival in September [2002], they asked the audience to provide topics for improvised poems. Amid anticipatory silence that crackled with palpable energy, they took turns meting out a single word (or line, according to the chosen constraint) into the microphone. Even if some of the impromptu poems missed the mark, the experiment provided a valuable template by which to read their similarly composed book, \u003ci\u003eNice Hat. Thanks.\u003c\/i\u003e—a silence in which words flail, becoming urgent and surprisingly funny. . . . Overall, their method is winning because it is manipulated with dexterity and aplomb by two nimble poets with a spry sense of humor and a refreshing willingness to set aside their artistic egos. There is little likeness between the collaborative poems and the work Beckman and Rohrer have published separately. I believe the authors when they write, “Our method turned us into another guy.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.raintaxi.com\/online\/2002winter\/beckman_rohrer.shtml\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eJen Bervin, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt's perfect for summer -- humorous, fleet, leaving you with positive impressions like a day at the beach.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/indigestblog.blogspot.com\/2009\/08\/what-weve-been-reading_21.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBrad Liening, \u003ci\u003eIndigest\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780972348706 (5x7 64pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Joshua Beckman","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199805682,"sku":"9780972348706","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/NiceHatBlues.jpg?v=1330555238"},{"product_id":"something-i-expected-to-be-different","title":"Something I Expected to be Different","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joshua-beckman\"\u003eJoshua Beckman\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eDid you see my eyes darting. Did you hear me\u003cbr\u003erepeating, yes every word you said.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf Beckman’s second collection, Tomaž Šalamun writes: “There are no similarities with Apollinaire or Ginsberg, except with what they were doing to Time while they were young.” \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Through repetition, rhythm, and a pervasively taut but accessible voice, Beckman sweeps us through his poems. On the way, we cover a lot of ground: the cost of living, the cost of books, love, regret, William Carlos Williams (whose socio-critical influence here is unmistakable), Hart Crane, Williamsburg, Manhattan, loss, and the transformation of world travel into a consumer's game are among the subjects by turns bemoaned, romanticized, and confronted in the pages of this book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMax Winter, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoshua Beckman is a sturdy younger poet. He can be seen treading the streets of New York City and reading from clutches of pages in crowded smoky downtown bars. His second book, \u003ci\u003eSomething I Expected to Be Different\u003c\/i\u003e, is occupied with characters as familiar as friends, floating outside of their own bodies on the surfaces of summer lakes as they float outside of their own experiences in memory; his long projective lines, alternating with tighter sculptured stanzas, allow warmer winds and longer rivers to wind through them...Beckman’s poems flow out from a long American tradition beginning with Walt Whitman’s \u003ci\u003eLeaves of Grass\u003c\/i\u003e through Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems to Charles Olson’s Maximus poems and Allen Ginsberg’s \u003ci\u003eFall of America\u003c\/i\u003e, even, perhaps strangely, the columnar iconographic gestures of Concrete poets like Ian Hamilton Finlay, overlaid onto otherwise buoyant lines. The reader is startled to find herself weightless but also anchored in many regions concurrently...America and its readers are lucky to have him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eErnest Hilbert, \u003ci\u003eBoldType\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAttempting to reclaim money worries and heartbreak from the grip of pop songs, Beckman's follow-up to the APR\/Honnickman-winning debut \u003cem\u003eThings Are Happening\u003c\/em\u003e ardently investigates the hapless repetitions of being young and coming into contact with other people, and of writing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-0-9703672-4-2\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 1, 2001\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367242 (5.5x8.5 72pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Joshua Beckman","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199812312,"sku":"9780970367242","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/somethingiexpected.jpg?v=1329333600"},{"product_id":"gentle-reader","title":"Gentle Reader!","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joshua-beckman\"\u003eJoshua Beckman\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/anthony-mccann\"\u003eAnthony McCann\u003c\/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/matthew-rohrer\"\u003eMatthew Rohrer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(6x8.5 68pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eI was alive\u003cbr\u003eSometimes\u003cbr\u003e        I looked...\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eGentle Reader!\u003c\/i\u003e is a collaborative book of erasures of Romantic era texts by Joshua Beckman, Anthony McCann, and Matthew Rohrer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e A book that perfectly encapsulates the contradictions and complexities surrounding the English Romantics is an erasure of their works: \u003ci\u003eGentle Reader!\u003c\/i\u003e...If you think erasure is valuable as an exercise but lacks literary merit, then I strongly recommend this book. You will find surreal images, and straightforward but astonishingly expressed statements, evidence that erasure can achieve what Wordsworth called \"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings\"... \u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.believermag.com\/issues\/201201\/?read=article_vanasco\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eJeannie Vanasco, \u003ci\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRead an interview at the \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.kenyonreview.org\/2012\/11\/effaced-ballads-an-interview-with-matthew-rohrer-anthony-mccann-and-joshua-beckman-on-erasing-the-romantics\/%22\"\u003eKenyon Review\u003c\/a\u003e with all three authors about \u003ci\u003eGentle Reader!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Joshua Beckman","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199816622,"sku":"","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/GentleReader.cov.jpg?v=1330540387"},{"product_id":"new-exercises","title":"New Exercises","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/franck-andre-jamme\"\u003eFranck André Jamme\u003c\/a\u003e, Translated by \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/charles-borkhuis\"\u003eCharles Borkhuis\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e These brief geometrical wonders pack a big punch as puzzles that become poems. Like tiny poetic word searches, these small poems reveal themselves as tightly-packed aphorisms, asserting themselves physically in the world with a wisdom that is somehow simultaneously novel and ancient.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCheck out the \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/products\/new-exercises-limited-edition-box-set\"\u003eNew Exercises Limited Edition Box Set\u003c\/a\u003e. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Even as Jamme’s neat blocks, steles, and squares suggest the permanence of letters on stone, they tell us, in modernist style, to make ourselves new—to rearrange our ideas, to regard all experience as impermanent, all patterns as partly imposed. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eStephen Burt, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e, Fall 2009\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe process of reading [\u003ci\u003eNew Exercises\u003c\/i\u003e] seems as important (if not more so) that the wisdom of the aphorisms. They play against the urge of the eye to progress, causing me to arrive at words in unexpected ways. The reading of this books works as part puzzle, part poem, part wish. It makes me wonder how I would have reacted to Stein’s syntax if I’d read it first in the subway rather than in a textbook, or Williams’ lines without having them poorly interpreted by a high school teacher (sorry Mr. Slaughter). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/mathiassvalina.blogspot.com\/2009\/01\/jake-gillespie-drawings-franck-andre.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eMathias Svalina, \u003ci\u003eYes, Starlings! Yes!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI respond to [\u003ci\u003eNew Exercises\u003c\/i\u003e] the way I picture Ezra Pound at St. Elizabeths communing deeply with a Chinese character, pulling the various ideogrammatic particulars (man, tree, fire) out in order to suss out a synthesis, registering progress with a satisfying asemantical grunt. I like how slow it makes the world. I like the waiting, the revel of delay reveal’d. (A lovely line of apparent instruction, laconic, prefaces the selection: “Not too fast.”) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/isola-di-rifiuti.blogspot.com\/2009_09_01_archive.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eJohn Latta, \u003ci\u003eIsola di Rifuti\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: December 1, 2008\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517360 (5.5x8.5 96pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Franck André Jamme","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199831722,"sku":"9781933517360","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/new_exercises001.gif?v=1334165420"},{"product_id":"the-scented-fox","title":"The Scented Fox","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/laynie-browne\"\u003eLaynie Browne\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e Laynie Browne’s seventh collection emerges from reconstructed tales and dreams. In these fragmented poetic spells, characters disappear and re-emerge, their charms reconfigured, their stories unraveling, their resolutions elusive. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNational Poetry Series winner selected by Alice Notley.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e I’ve been persuaded by the poems’ psyches to lose myself, to forget the existence of anything outside the mind ... anything concrete enough to become a physical obstacle to stability, awareness, or wisdom. Laynie Browne is my new best friend. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/coldfrontmag.com\/the-scented-fox\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eMelinda Wilson, \u003ci\u003eColdfront\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA conclusion fixes fate and form, implies logical order toward completion--that the path to transformation was linear and finite. The world of The Scented Fox aims to be shifting and boundless, syntactically challenging: awestruck at the infinite possibilities of its linguistic landscape. More, it seems awestruck at the infinite possibilities of the female form: how once freed from the constraints of “Those-He,” of the story forced upon her, the female form can be a thousand things and one thing at once...The poems in this book do not offer conclusions. It is up to the reader to complete each tale, to both listen and become storyteller, to cross the invisible boundary laid between audience and poet--between one mind and another. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSara Johnson, \u003ci\u003eZoland Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“How might starlight be constructed?” Laynie Browne asks in a poem in her new book, \u003ci\u003eThe Scented Fox\u003c\/i\u003e. The book itself seems to ask how a luminous tale--folk or fairy or otherwise--is constructed or composed. This collection is made up of prose and verse forms, letters, interrupted sequences, and a “dictionary.” The poet goes in search of that slippery idea of a tale, not in any direct or linear way, but rather by falling backwards into a colorful map as it becomes aware of its own conditions. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMolly Bendall, \u003ci\u003eLana Turner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I was reading, I felt a strange sense of familiarity, as though I had stumbled across these concepts and ideas before without ever being able to pinpoint it. Her tales in miniature section is an incredibly interesting concept. She writes a fairytale in three words. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSave Ophelia\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: November 1, 2007\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517261 (6x8.5 120pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Laynie Browne","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199840612,"sku":"9781933517261","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/scentedfox_1.jpg?v=1329335138"},{"product_id":"profane-halo","title":"Profane Halo","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/gillian-conoley\"\u003eGillian Conoley\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e A rich, thoughtful investigation of this political\/historical moment that both illuminates and transcends. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGillian Conoley takes her title, \u003ci\u003eProfane Halo\u003c\/i\u003e, from Italian philosopher and critic Giorgio Agamben’s notion of a post-rapturous world whose figures and creatures roam the earth, having completed their theological task, striving to find new community, new meaning. Post-allegorical, post-apolcalyptic, post-Christian, these poems continue Conoley’s exploration into the impossible questions of grace and redemption, self and other, death in life, language and being, democracy and song. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Exuberant and challenging, the quick cuts and vibrant, freestanding images in Conoley’s fifth volume let her see America from many sides and in all sorts of scales, from the ground level of coastal suburbs to the grand cycles of political history. “Dear Sunset that was sun of now\/ Near Greatness, dear tongue my Queen dear rock solid,” the title poem asks, “how could we know that we are forerunners?” There follows a series of verbally brilliant, sometimes strikingly fragmentary poems, some perhaps inspired by photographs; Conoley lights up American spaces and persons past and present, embedding quotes from poetic luminaries (Dickinson, Zukofsky) and showing a slant toward the Pacific coast, where “California floats its prisons in the sea.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs we have at the end of “Burnt City,” the poems make “syllabary hung \/ \/ like wash, sun mortal beautiful because it can destroy \/ \/ historical time.” Unfastened from the linear, the desperation and observation find a way to settle into being, a being that wants to deconstruct the aspect of the world that interferes with its natural chaos. In Conoley this is its elegance and beauty and organizing principle. A place with “Unsullied white flowers \/ \/ of form and the form of darksome cloud \/ \/ pine lanes and the fresh horses who fly into them, \/ \/ fly through them, fly in.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Koehn, \u003ci\u003eJacket Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, 29\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe sheer horror of 9\/11 inspired plenty of people--Gillian Conoley among them--to compose poems. But Conoley’s new book, \u003ci\u003eProfane Halo\u003c\/i\u003e, takes the inventive tack of fashioning a whole new language that mirrors the blown-apart world we currently inhabit. Spiritually unhinged, bereft of a common religious text, we wander a 21st-century wasteland of McDonald’s and jihad, of tyrannical capitalism and bloodthirsty fundamentalism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJarret Keene, \u003ci\u003eLas Vegas City Life\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2005\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780974635323 (7x9 96pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Gillian Conoley","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":199849692,"sku":"9780974635323","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/profanehalo.jpg?v=1329335725"},{"product_id":"quaker-guns","title":"Quaker Guns","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/caroline-knox\"\u003eCaroline Knox\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e “A most inquisitive poet...one who has been faxing by the midnight oil while so many others were dipping their quills into dry sockets. Caroline Knox reminds us how whangy and interesting it all is.”\u003cem\u003e–C.D. Wright\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo much fun you might not notice you are in the presence of a master. The poems in \u003cem\u003eQuaker Guns\u003c\/em\u003e are madcap, fierce: no one’s bag of tricks is as bottomless as Knox’s. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of a 2009 Recommended Reading Award from the Massachusetts Center for the Book\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e The poems in Caroline Knox’s sixth collection, \u003cem\u003eQuaker Guns\u003c\/em\u003e, embody the dichotomies and disparities of American poetry: L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, Neo-Formalism, everything under and in between. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRichard Schiewe, \u003cem\u003eColdfront\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis fantasy of making begins in hope and ends in dismay: the poet is aware of the danger of clever word games. But she plays them brilliantly. Highly recommended. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKnox is an accomplished poet with a rich vocabulary and an even richer sense of how the world is inwardly collapsing, from one big idea to the next, one word to another. Reading her is agreeing to a voyage of discovery, rife with playfulness and smarts. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCamille-Yvette Welsch, \u003cem\u003eForeWord Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the title poem of Caroline Knox’s sixth collection, the author envisions her own literary craft braving open waters safeguarded by just such an artful design: “They’re Quaker guns, a creative ruse, the kind you couldn’t and wouldn’t \/ fire.” Here, the wily Knox comes as close as she ever does to a statement of literary ethics in our time of war. Like a Quaker gun, the work of art may offer “a creative ruse” for ensuring safe passage through the piratical regimes which endanger lyric utterance today. With brio to burn, \u003cem\u003eQuaker Guns\u003c\/em\u003e thus makes a bold claim that literary form itself might be literally disarming. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSrikanth Reddy, \u003cem\u003eLana Turner\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReading Caroline Knox one is grateful for her idiosyncratic guidance through the selva of text exfoliated (sometimes) and juxtaposed collagistically at other times. The desire that moves the concentrate sol of these word engines is one more powerful in our world now than it was when the world was smaller, namely “I have to have a book to really read.” I really read this one, and felt no time passing. \u003cbr\u003e\u0026gt;\u003cstrong\u003eAndrei Codrescu,\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003cem\u003eExquisite Corpse\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe repetition of words creates an accumulating stasis that mirrors the motion of construction where techniques are repeated and repeated until a house is built, a tradition is founded, and a proverb is established. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJosh Cook, \u003cem\u003eBookslut\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMasterfully crafted whimsy with serious quirk, quirky seriousness, a vocabulary swinging from colloquial to archaic, and plenty historical, scientific, and literary bits--this is the deeply pleasurable poetry of Caroline Knox, long a store favorite. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOpen Books\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaroline Knox is a poet who brings an often-insistent kind of schema to her work, like a gardener training a pea vine to twist around a stake and therefore increase its ability to yield fruit. ... Around every corner is a new delight. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eD.A. Powell, \u003cem\u003eAmerican Poet\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2008\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517278 (6.5x9.5 70pp, paperback)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781933517285 (6.5x9.5 70pp, limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Caroline Knox","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207000901,"sku":"9781933517278","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":207491642,"sku":"9781933517285","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/QUAKER_GUNS.jpg?v=1419362077"},{"product_id":"satellite","title":"Satellite","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/matthew-rohrer\"\u003eMatthew Rohrer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eIt was a good day and I was about to do something important\u003cbr\u003eand good, but then I unscrewed the pen I was using...\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this follow-up collection to National Poetry Series winner \u003ci\u003eA Hummock in the Malookas,\u003c\/i\u003e Rohrer’s poems play against convention, finding dark, surreal underpinnings in the seemingly innocent objects and experiences of everyday life. Direct, humorous and disquieting, \u003ci\u003eSatellite\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates the unique sensibility of this important poet. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Everywhere, Rohrer’s poems play against our lyric expectations as they approach familiar ideas of lyric transcendence—only to turn away and begin again. The true evidence of Rohrer’s growth as a poet, though, comes in the subtlety of the critical intelligence operating under the surface of his comic-fantastic. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSpencer Short, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e...a shimmering constellation of images, both urban and wild, filled with unexpected shifts and twists. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime Out New York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are a number of younger poets producing the kind of work that may eventually renew the art. Matthew Rohrer belongs to this group of newcomers whose work is everywhere marked by originality and freshness. There is a pristine quality to his writing that wakes one up and clears the senses, promising poem after poem to remake the world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHarvard Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 1, 2001\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367235 (5.5x8.5 78pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Matthew Rohrer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207007719,"sku":"9780970367235","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/Satellite.jpg?v=1330555052"},{"product_id":"a-green-light","title":"A Green Light","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/matthew-rohrer\"\u003eMatthew Rohrer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMatthew Rohrer’s simple, hilarious, generous, and strangely disquieting poems conjure versions of the most familiar aspects of our lives—friendship, marriage, childhood, work—into which intrude incongruous, peculiar, fantastical, yet somehow totally recognizable elements. Over and over these poems leave us convinced that we've learned something very important and mysterious, yet we can’t say exactly what.\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/collections\/audiobooks\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlso available as an audiobook\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e So, this is a book of mirrors. Some of these mirrors show us dark pools of humility, some make us think we are somewhere else. Some I think are full of lies and some are magic holes. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eZachary Schomburg, \u003ci\u003eOctopus Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEqual parts punk rock and pastoral, (Rohrer has) a voice that seems unearthly in its ability to be detached and simultaneously tender. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmerican Poet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the midst of what could be, in other hands, wreckage or hopelessness, Rohrer’s poems run up the banner of hopefulness, create complete poems out of incomplete thoughts... This is a book with an edge, a book of brash clamour and hard-earned joy. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJudges' Citation, the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Green Light\u003c\/i\u003e is in fact Rohrer’s timeliest book to date, and it reminds us that a measure of irony can keep us from being duped by those in power, from falling prey to rhetoric: “The book that says the President is a friend of trees is a book of lies!... It is a book about how to have a big piece missing from your head and live.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCraig Morgan Teicher, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END REVIEWS--\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 1, 2004\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780972348775 (5.5x8.5 96pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 978195026801 (audiobook)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Matthew Rohrer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207007757,"sku":"9780972348775","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":39848220819537,"sku":"9781950268016","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/agreenlight.jpg?v=1663684944"},{"product_id":"rise-up","title":"Rise Up","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/matthew-rohrer\"\u003eMatthew Rohrer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e Rohrer turns wide eyes and lyric wit toward the requirements of fatherhood, citizenship, and romantic love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eApproaching pleasure and terror with the same searching and determined curiosity, \u003ci\u003eRise Up\u003c\/i\u003e traverses political, natural, and domestic landscapes with gentle agility. Beautifully crafted surfaces give way to sincere depth. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Hip, humorous, ironic, winking and deceptively footloose, the 17 stylish poems and sequences of Rohrer’s fifth collection take a skewed look at the politics and passages of contemporary life. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe poems in \u003ci\u003eRise Up\u003c\/i\u003e are serious and well-crafted, but also funny and fresh, exhibiting a playfulness he’s shown in previous collections. Rohrer proves himself a master of Stanley Kunitz’s advice to end on an image and not explain it, letting the image explain itself. Again and again, he ends on images simultaneously cryptic and perfectly fitting, like a poetry gymnast sticking landing after landing. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKathleen Rooney, \u003ci\u003eOpen Letters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMatthew Rohrer’s fourth solo book, is a gathering of poems presented in a nonchalant, softly comic voice. The speaker often seems to be an acutely observing bystander—“police \/ throughout the city wearing \/ new pants, with cargo pockets \/ because of the increased threat \/ it was important to stress.” The stance of the poems is more surreal than emotional, but Mr. Rohrer embraces his environment with lovely imagery. “Bring blue milk home from \/ the corner where they \/ bottle the day.” And his desire to be kind rises often, as when he writes, “Ellen \/ I say slowly, I’m sure you will succeed \/ in your endeavors. Those are \/ not the words I planned to say. \/ I was still awakening from a dream of the distant war.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOpen Books: A Poem Emporium, The Goods\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe poet is ever trying to shove away that darkness, or at least to ride it out in the corner bagel place until the black clouds pass. As a document of love in the time of colic, \u003ci\u003eRise Up\u003c\/i\u003e succeeds wholeheartedly. The surrealistic flourishes of the past are not missed, or are honed to absolute sharpness (“the room is gently lit by the green \/ shirt you gave me,” from “Poem”). There’s a wealth of real feeling here buttressed by a strong sense that the poems really matter to the poet. He should never have to apologize for any of it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Sewell, \u003ci\u003eColdfront Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2007\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517186 (5.75x8.5 80pp, paperback)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781933517193 (5.75x8.5 80pp, limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Matthew Rohrer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207008147,"sku":"9781933517186","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":207008149,"sku":"9781933517193","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/Rise_Up_Cover.jpg?v=1419362165"},{"product_id":"terrain-vague","title":"Terrain Vague","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/richard-meier\"\u003eRichard Meier\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e “Basking in the twilight of Late Romanticism, Meier (no relation to the architect), in his debut, finds the rays seductive but damaging. Frequent nods to predecessors abound; whether revising Stevens’s ‘Ideas of Order’ or growing impatient with his ‘Disillusionment of Ten O’clock,’ Meier rejects the redemptive power of a supreme fiction, casting his lot with the postmodern lyricism of Michael Palmer and linguistic slippage of the quickly lyric Ashbery.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2000 Verse Prize, selected by Tomaž Šalamun\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Richard Meier’s \u003ci\u003eTerrain Vague\u003c\/i\u003e chooses a remarkably different path. Among a plethora of nearly indistinguishable voices, his rings out like that of a man waving semaphores: hills and valleys burning, fire approaching from above and around and below. It is a startling first book, a work of craft and originality and heart. Without flamboyant language it makes its presence known, refuses to engage in idle conversation and creates, by doing so, a different tone in the room...this is one of the best first books I have seen in recent years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePamela Greenberg, \u003ci\u003eHarvard Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe poems are dense and imagistic, at times almost surreal, and they pulse down the page with an urgency of both narrative and rhythm. Meier packs his poems tightly...They are also consistently worth the effort of unpacking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCamille-Yvette Welsch, \u003ci\u003eForeWord Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!---BIO END----\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: December 1, 2000\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367211 (5.5x8.5 108pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Richard Meier","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207228889,"sku":"9780970367211","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/TerrainVague.jpg?v=1330554408"},{"product_id":"winter-sex","title":"Winter Sex","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca title=\"Link: \/collections\/authors\/products\/katy-lederer\" href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/katy-lederer\"\u003eKaty Lederer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e “Probing, pondering, and deeply honest—these poems inhabit the space of questions and resonate in the cavern of possibility. Sometimes melancholy, but also sometimes funny, they are about the speculative yearnings that bind us to all that we care about. In this remarkable first book, Katy Lederer proves that, though beauty and intelligence may be at odds with the conditions of the world, they need not be at odds with each other.”—\u003ci\u003eLyn Hejinian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Lederer’s lyricism is often punctuated with the tautological, the truistic, the what-goes-without-saying, and the humility of Lederer’s quasi-conclusions can be a winning quality. The poems are often amped to the point that the filament in them appears ready to burn, and then at the last second Lederer seems to know how to reduce the current without losing the illumination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul Stephens, \u003ci\u003eElectronic Poetry Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 1, 2002\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367280 (7x9 64pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Katy Lederer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207240101,"sku":"9780970367280","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/wintersexwebsite.jpg?v=1354745164"},{"product_id":"monkey-time","title":"Monkey Time","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/philip-nikolayev\"\u003ePhilip Nikolayev\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eBoxes are hoaxes of the imagination,\u003cbr\u003ethey fold out backwards\u003cbr\u003eand proceed to foreclose themselves\u003cbr\u003efrom the other side\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf Nikolayev’s accomplished first book, Robert Kelly writes: \u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eNothing escapes his formal insistence to renew... A wild, generous book, full of invention.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2001 Verse Prize, selected by Lyn Hejinian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c!--\n\n\n\nEND DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e These are poems that are riveting for the immediacy and urgency of a language that draws deeply upon the springs of language, while inventing new idioms to make us feel the world that we live in. They are full of lines ‘that cause tears to flow \/ and cheers to follow’ (‘Boxes’). Throughout, Nikolayev is relentlessly resourceful, finding ways to, in Eliot’s famous words, ‘dance \/ Like a dancing bear, \/ Cry like a parrot, chatter like an ape.’ The message is urgent. It is possible to be fully alive. This is poetry with ears. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBen Mazer, \u003ci\u003eJacket Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReading Nikolayev you become acutely aware of three things: firstly, you are encountering a man of many talents with a good intellect and mischievous sense of humour; secondly, your formal, rhythmic and semantic expectations are being tested; and, thirdly, that you are lifting the cover on an entrance to the Tower of Babel, where English though clearly recognisable sounds strangely foreign. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Couth, \u003ci\u003eShearsman 62\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: June 1, 2003\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367297 (6x9 99pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Philip Nikolayev","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207241959,"sku":"9780970267297","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/mtcover.png?v=1681943328"},{"product_id":"letters-to-wendys","title":"Letters to Wendy’s","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/joe-wenderoth\"\u003eJoe Wenderoth\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e “A work of genius.” —\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLetters to Wendy’s\u003c\/i\u003e is an outrageous, tragic, genre-bending novel written over the course of a year on comment cards from the fast-food chain restaurant Wendy’s. Through the letters, the book traces a year in the life and thoughts of an unnamed narrator obsessed not only by Biggies and Frosties, but also by consumerism, pornography, and mortality. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e At once a love story, cultural critique, and commentary on literary theory, \u003ci\u003eLetters to Wendy’s\u003c\/i\u003e ... has already become an underground internet favorite, and is likely to be known eventually as the most apt, able, and adventurous ars poetica to be produced for and by Generation X. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn D’Agata, \u003ci\u003eBoston Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e... a perverse, sometimes pretty, obscene and confounding collection of one page meditative missives ... trimmed with lunatic fringe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRolling Stone\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I first read a selection of Letters in \u003ci\u003eAmerican Poetry Review\u003c\/i\u003e two years ago, I disrupted the peace of a library reading room by laughing out loud. Their earnest naiveté, when juxtaposed with philosophical argument or outright violence, created an uneasy tension, prompting an almost involuntary reverse reaction akin to that experienced on scary amusement park rides—the sudden, zig-zag jerking into darkness or light.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFred Muratori, \u003ci\u003eElectronic Poetry Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\nThe unashamed use of Wendy's images like Biggies, Frosties, and even the once virgin-like Wendy's borders on pornographic, but always leaves me laughing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVictoria Chang, \u003ci\u003eThe Huffington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: December 1, 2000\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367204 (5.5x6.5 296pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Joe Wenderoth","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207323127,"sku":"9780970367204","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/LetterstoWendys.jpg?v=1330555774"},{"product_id":"oubliette","title":"Oubliette","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/peter-richards\"\u003ePeter Richards\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eSee a man all broken in threes.\u003cbr\u003eAt this hour his horse of changing names.\u003cbr\u003eIt is so much sweating out beads that gleam with the look of your face.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It is inscrutable how Peter Richards produces this religious magma and bathes himself and us in it. How he restores internal time to the work of art.”\u003ci\u003e—Tomaž Šalamun\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e This harrowing, beautiful first volume shows a modern audience what spiritual autobiography would look like were it written without the consolations of an everlasting soul... Richards’ sculptor’s sense of language makes desperation and nullity into materials to be carved, molded and welded into figures of wonder... tempered throughout by an immense tenderness toward words themselves... Self-elegy, ars poetica, classical love poetry, and prayer are the registers of Richards’ voice...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSrikanth Reddy, \u003ci\u003eDenver Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor Richards, life in a poem is like life in a body; most at risk, and most fully itself, when at play... it’s not so much that syntax focuses language as that it focuses the reader. Along with his cat’s paw sense of diction, it allows him to brew up a tonal soup that is one part tenderness, one part comic slyness, and one part awe. And it suggests that his range as a poet will be wide and continually surprising.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Rivard, \u003ci\u003ePloughshares\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEmotional poverty and a yearning for freedom are the leitmotivs in \u003ci\u003eOubliette\u003c\/i\u003e. The poems delve into the darkness of actual and imagined fears, of loss and isolation, and they propose the possibility of redemption.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDuncan Sprattmoran, \u003ci\u003eForeWord Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 1, 2001\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367228 (5.5x8.5 78pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Peter Richards","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207324627,"sku":"9780970367228","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/Oubliette.jpg?v=1330555189"},{"product_id":"nude-siren","title":"Nude Siren","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/peter-richards\"\u003ePeter Richards\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e A found world of sense and idea, of time and movement, of the body and its secrets. At once sensuous and esoteric, these poems move between intellectual curiosity and emotional experience with a deft and compassionate hand. Through curving syntax and multiple voices, words themselves become fetishistic objects, ordinary lives take on a rare voluptuousness, and the relentless pursuit of the new yields a tentative, harrowing redemption of the old. Haunted by possibility and grasping after erotic and spiritual connection, the faceted world of \u003ci\u003eNude Siren\u003c\/i\u003e confronts the physicality of language, and of ourselves. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e \u003ci\u003eNude Siren\u003c\/i\u003e reaches us full of mad austerities and wreckless decorums. Using descriptive intensity as a form of imaginative liberty, these poems come from the blast furnace of a new idiom, what “Coastal People” calls “a June-fed incinerator.” We never leave the world as we know it but are given it cracked and glazed through incantatory rites of formal elegance, gritty emotional longing, and a seemingly limitless verbal range. The force of these volatile lyrics comes in part from an articulation pushed beyond the combinatory explosiveness of surrealism toward a vatic brilliance, and their darkness is utterly convincing because it is so full of comets and scars.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDean Young\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEmily Dickinson tells us that “microscopes are prudent in an emergency,” and in this way Peter Richards is a glorious miniaturist. In their artful attention to detail and turns of language his poems remind us that love is constituted in the particulars. How his radiant and transformative poetry can do the hustle on the head of a pin and remain poignant, open, and true, is his secret.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Gizzi\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 1, 2003\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780939010745 (5.5x8.5 80pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Peter Richards","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207330485,"sku":"9780939010745","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/Nude_Siren.jpg?v=1330469614"},{"product_id":"hat-on-a-pond","title":"Hat on a Pond","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/products\/dara-barrois-dixon\"\u003eDara Barrois\/Dixon (née Dara Wier)\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eThe ones with the softest hearts divide\u003cbr\u003eTheir time between nearly dead and almost alive.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Recalling at moments the philosophical comedy of Wallace Stevens and Wislawa Szymborska, many of Wier’s colloquial stanzas draw a reader away from a recognizable world into one in which women waltz with bears, houseflies chat with colonels, and the absence of sound makes a material presence.”—\u003cem\u003eHarvard Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003eWier's exuberant poems often organize themselves as catalogues or lists—of actions, of things, of sights, of related adverbial phrases—so that any one poem in this thick, eclectic eighth book of verse can include almost anything.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: December 1, 2001\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367266 (5.5x8.5 128pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dara Barrois\/Dixon (née Dara Wier)","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207330865,"sku":"9780970367266","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/HatOnaPond.jpg?v=1330556711"},{"product_id":"reverse-rapture","title":"Reverse Rapture","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/products\/dara-barrois-dixon\"\u003eDara Barrois\/Dixon (née Dara Wier)\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab4\"\u003eMore\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESC--\u003e \u003cem\u003e(we were subterranean then) (it lasted a long time)\u003cbr\u003e(you wore a jacklight) (like a third eye)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e is an intimate epic of memory, hope, and questioning. A band of explorers sifts through the artifacts and sensations of our times, all the while listening to and taking care of one another. In awe of everything, they, and the poems that recount their adventures, create a gorgeous web of lyric possibility.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2006 SFSU Poetry Center Book Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c!--END DESC--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e What a masterful performance Dara Wier presents in \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e!... Wier’s parentheses are placed side by side—aside by aside—on the same level of attention, like a stone skipping unendingly across a lake. The text is suspenseful and engaging, random yet within a range of expectation set up by a prologue that reads like an archaeologist’s report on a newly uncovered civilization. Lost to us already, these people speak by telepathic choruses of linked or scattered statements, descriptions, and reactions.... Wier’s poems explode with variety, particularity, whirlwinds of detail and mystery, shrinkwrapped though they are: memoirs, dialogues, choral performances witnessing scenes both weird and familiar... the halfmoons curving around each phrase permit a surprising immediacy, abutment of image and sound that heightens the surreality of Wier’s juxtapositions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRosanne Wasserman, \u003cem\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWier’s tone is conspiratorial, intimate, and conversational; there is the urgency of a conversion experience in the making. The speaker will save you from yourself one way or another, but it won’t be in order to spill the beans of a particular cultish belief on your lap. You’re going to have to work harder than that to find your own meanings, make your own rituals—and your own fun. This litany just keeps rolling toward you, as the poet employs an unending list(ing) effect.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCathryn Hankla, \u003cem\u003eHollins Critic\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike Seurat’s Grand Jatte, Roussel’s \u003cem\u003eNouvelles Impressions d’Afrique\u003c\/em\u003e and Stein’s \u003cem\u003eStanzas in Meditation\u003c\/em\u003e, Dara Wier’s \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e is a mosaic whose colossal proportions contradict the mundane character of its countless self-contained tesserae. It may not be for the faint of heart—most intense experiences aren’t—but those who stay with it will find themselves face to face with a world whose eerily sharp focus suggests recent satellite photographs of Mars. And they will never be the same again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Ashbery\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab4\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--MORE--\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e“Notes on \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e”\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eby Dara Wier\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI ran across Breton\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es \u003cem\u003eMad Love\u003c\/em\u003e and started reading its first paragraph. What arrested my attention is this part:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThese characters habitually appear to me dressed in black probably in full dress; their faces escape me, but I think there are seven or so of them, seated next to each other on a bench, talking among themselves, always looking straight ahead. That is the way I should have liked to put them on stage in the play's opening scene, their role being to unveil, with a certain cynicism, the motives for the action. At nightfall and often much later (I know perfectly well that psychoanalysis would have something to say about this), as if they were submitting to a ritual, I find them wandering speechless by the sea, in single file, winding lightly around the waves. Coming from them, the silence is no hardship, their conversation on that bench always having seemed to me, to tell the truth, singularly disconnected.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is pretty much one way I\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ed pictured a staged reading of \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot in its entirety, but rather in a newly arranged scripting.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnother way is I\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003eve pictured actors standing in changing fluid arrangements, none of them ever fully visible even while overhead spots attempt to illuminate them as they speak, but the spots always miss their mark, maybe occasionally glancing on just a part of a face, or a hand, or the back of someone's head, the spots would need to be not glaring ones, they'd need to be filtered, a good lighting choreographer would need to play this dance of lights out, it would need to mostly be subtle, though now and then, it could \u003cspan\u003e“take over”\u003c\/span\u003e and voices might shift into a quieter range...voice ranges, likewise, would need to be lowered and raised in some rhythmical sequences, there might now and then be some echoes. A score would need to be as integral as lighting and words. Textured.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI think it should take no more than about 27 minutes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI think of the book as a river. You don't need to start at the source or headwater, nor do you need to view the mouth of the river as any kind of cut and dry conclusion or location. I think the book can be read in pieces, not insistently chronological, I think it can be dipped in and out of.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I was writing \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e I eventually found that I loved these characters. It became more and more evident they were in terribly difficult and sometimes extremely dangerous territories. They were in strange circumstances, traveling together, I don't think they knew where they were going and so by necessity they had to be always moving. I thought, after a while, of them keeping the conversation going because they had to, to keep one another alive. Maybe it is a little like how it feels to be in a room suddenly darkened because electricity\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es failed and no one seems to be finding a candle or flashlight or jacklight or strobe or klieg lights. I think of children, and occasionally adults, who are together after lights out, how affecting voices coming out of darkness will register. I suppose during WWII, where there were blackouts, conversations continued. I wrote the book while the Iraq war was in its early stages. I wrote in an atmosphere during which rumors and confusion were rampant, during a time when authority's main purpose seemed to be to keep us in fear. And often to deceive us. The characters in \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e are influenced by this time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile whistling in the dark doesn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et exactly compare to what's going on in \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e, there is in the book an aspect of at times keeping something at bay, at times being on the run, away from something threatening. I think they sometimes talk to give one another some comfort, sometimes to change the subject, sometimes to address their circumstances directly, sometimes to pass the time, sometimes because their love of one another leads them to have something inflected by love on their minds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es form, sections of 9-line, 9-stanza sequences was determined from the start. I like the number 9, I like that 81 can be converted to 9. I like odd numbers. The poem needed a rhythm of form so that its interior could be my focus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParentheses are timing devices. And, to a degree, syntax busters. Conventional punctuation would have left the words less overheard and more written. In the section subtitled \u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003enothing matches,\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e things seem to have gotten a little out of hand, as if perhaps everyone (characters in the poem overwhelmingly guiding my hand) decided to play these choices out in extreme.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany, though not all, of the epigraphs that run the length of the poem are from long or booklength poems or, in one case, a book that\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es a diary of a journey into territory before unknown to the log-keeper. Emily Dickinson\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es tombstone engraving [\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003ecalled back\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e] couldn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et be resisted as it speaks directly to the poem\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es title. I wanted to include others because in one way or another they call into the poem\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es pages books I\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003eve found to be mysteriously beautiful and deeply touching. I hope their appearances layer in other sets of possibilities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es prologue is the last piece I wrote. When I wrote it I didn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et know I was writing the book\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es prologue and surely this was a lucky accident. [Verse Press\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e editor] Lori Shine had asked me to proof her always carefully copyedited manuscript of \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e. I did as she asked. When that job was done, later in the day I started writing what I thought at the time was a \u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003enew\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e poem. It wasn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et until the next morning it dawned on me what I\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ed written was \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es prologue. I sent it to Lori Shine and Matthew Zapruder (then Verse, now Wave editor). They thought so too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShocking. Surely, the prologue came directly out of the time I\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ed spent proofing \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e. It\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es good that I didn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et know it while it was happening, for surely that knowledge would have stopped me in my tracks, frozen with destabilizing self-consciousness. If someone had said that the book needed a prologue, I would have been at a loss. Lucky, yes, and a good thing, too, that the prologue is there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile writing \u003cem\u003eReverse Rapture\u003c\/em\u003e I wrote many more sections than are included in the book as it stands. Matthew Zapruder and Lori Shine were most gentle and discrete and acutely helpful in guiding me as they and I proposed which sections to cut. This was not painful. It was strangely exhilarating. At some point we talked about putting some out-takes on the press website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003eDown the passage which we did not take\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003ccenter\u003eTowards the door we never opened\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ccenter\u003e—T. S. Eliot\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ccenter\u003e*\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003efire sale\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(it was a young one) (you could still see its\u003cbr\u003esoftspot) (it was pulsing)\u003cbr\u003e(it was curious watching it) (all of its feelings\u003cbr\u003ewere always colliding) (you could see them overtake\u003cbr\u003eone another and blend in) (even when it was sleeping)\u003cbr\u003e(what was it thinking about) (how was it feeling)\u003cbr\u003e(it was born with a veil over its face) (that\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es why\u003cbr\u003ethey didn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et want it)\u003cbr\u003e(back then we were all creoles) (that\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es what they called us)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(we carried umbrellas)\u003cbr\u003e(is there a way we can put one together)\u003cbr\u003e(keep those hubcaps) (we can use them for mirrors)\u003cbr\u003e(if we need to we can fill them with water)\u003cbr\u003e(they could be soup bowls) (they could be basins)\u003cbr\u003e(that\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es what they told us) (they sawed through the\u003cbr\u003ecrowns) (right through their foreheads) (they were\u003cbr\u003ethis shallow) (they couldn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et hold very much of any-\u003cbr\u003ething) (we didn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et buy one) (do you have your sling-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eshot) (it was the place they went to buy jackets)\u003cbr\u003e(I can hear something rustling around in the smoke\u003cbr\u003etrees) (see if you can hit that silo from here)\u003cbr\u003e(it might distract them) (we\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ell take the first street-\u003cbr\u003ecar we see) (now turn yourself into palmetto)\u003cbr\u003e(maybe you can be a basket of chopsticks) (what about\u003cbr\u003ea drawer full of steak knives) (remember when you were\u003cbr\u003ea snare drum) (timpani aren\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et for sissies) (then be\u003cbr\u003eany kind of kettledrum you want to)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(how will we get past the tollgate)\u003cbr\u003e(let me have one of the tipsheets) (the one we found\u003cbr\u003ein the bottle that time we slept by the river)\u003cbr\u003e(you said it was a circle of confusion) (you said it\u003cbr\u003ewas cock-eyed) (you called it a stormy petrel) (you \u003cbr\u003esaid it was classified)\u003cbr\u003e(that is not it) (that is the nuque of your neck)\u003cbr\u003e(then get out some tea leaves) (go find some entrails)\u003cbr\u003e(how about the sock filled with marbles)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(they were siphoning) (they weren\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et ciphering) (not\u003cbr\u003ethen they weren\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et)\u003cbr\u003e(they needed diesel fuel) (that\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es how they got it)\u003cbr\u003e(remember how it clashed) (it was foxy)\u003cbr\u003e(you said it was some kind of con game)\u003cbr\u003e(it was just some subfamily)\u003cbr\u003e(it wasn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et meek) (it caused a lot of turbulence in\u003cbr\u003ethe morass) (that was its aptitude)\u003cbr\u003e(so derange it)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(go whack some bush) (if you\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ere so anxious)\u003cbr\u003e(you know what they say about patience) \u003cbr\u003e(then loan me some sandpaper) (I\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ell just sit here)\u003cbr\u003e(the ones we found tied up outside the cathedral)\u003cbr\u003e(didn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et work out) (they\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ed been housetrained)\u003cbr\u003e(you can play it back) (it was recorded)\u003cbr\u003e(those are the ones whose fingerprints we found\u003cbr\u003eon magnolias)\u003cbr\u003e(maybe it was gardenias)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(anyway) (it smacked of skullduggery)\u003cbr\u003e(they\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ed stuck skull \u0026amp; dagger stickers on every-\u003cbr\u003ething) (everywhere they went)\u003cbr\u003e(it ruined the scenery)\u003cbr\u003e(they asked too many questions we couldn\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et answer)\u003cbr\u003e(they came around collecting samples of our tapwater)\u003cbr\u003e(one of them offered to give us prayer lessons)\u003cbr\u003e(it was going to help them meet some kind of quota)\u003cbr\u003e(they never asked for a quorum)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(that old seamless gown) (whatever happened with it)\u003cbr\u003e(what seamless gown)\u003cbr\u003e(the one we found on the tugboat) (it was a stormy\u003cbr\u003enight)\u003cbr\u003e(it was frigorific) (like good time lapse)\u003cbr\u003e(it was a straight shooter) (like a ventriloquist)\u003cbr\u003e(they said it was mandatory)\u003cbr\u003e(they looked bad) (they had mange)\u003cbr\u003e(it was their gravy train) (they said they owned it)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(they docked everything they could dock)\u003cbr\u003e(it\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es burned pretty bad but you can still tell it\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es\u003cbr\u003ea jacket) (that's a chevron) (that's a fishhook)\u003cbr\u003e(that\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es somebody\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es hatchet job) (that's a plotline)\u003cbr\u003e(there\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es a barrel full of tridents) (you can take one)\u003cbr\u003e(in its own way it\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es tintinabular) (at least sometimes)\u003cbr\u003e(what\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es the longest time you ever listened to bells\u003cbr\u003etoll) (they were big bells) (we were hypnotized) (when we\u003cbr\u003efound them the carrier pigeons\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e eyes had been sewn closed)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END MORE--\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2005\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780974635347 (6x9 152pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dara Barrois\/Dixon (née Dara Wier)","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207334153,"sku":"9780974635347","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/ReverseRaptureCoverFINAL.jpg?v=1330473923"},{"product_id":"selected-poems-1","title":"Selected Poems","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/products\/dara-barrois-dixon\"\u003eDara Barrios\/Dixon (née Dara Wier)\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e A major retrospective that will stand as an indispensable record of turn-of-the-millennium poetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEncompassing work from 1977 through 2006, \u003cem\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e reflects—while transcending—American poetry over the last thirty years, from early lyric poems to the complex enthrallment of poems in more recent volumes. \u003cem\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e confirms Dara Wier as one of contemporary poetry’s most important voices. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Ups and downs, uneven passions and sometimes apparently random associations are the paradoxical constant in this first Selected from Wier (\u003cem\u003eRemnants of Hannah\u003c\/em\u003e), drawn (without new work) on eight published books of short poems... Such poems are not whimsies but quizzical visions, or dreams, in which readers might try hard to get lost.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrepare to dig into these poems, read them twice, three times if necessary. That kind of commitment from the reader will pay off with poems resonating throughout the days to follow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMichael Lee, \u003cem\u003eForeWord Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Wier’s] poems often move by accrual and accrue insights and ironies to reach moments of surprising knowledge and vision. Wier’s surreal is a clearer mirror than most straight-on descriptions or linear narrative... One can recognize the darkness here, just as we are grateful for Wier’s sentences, syntax, and words. Her directed and charged language is a reminder of how vital and vivid poetry can be.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAmerican Poet\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWier’s use of repetition and variation and her attention to language itself suggests that one never steps in the same proverbial river, one never uses the same word, and therefore, one is never the same self... in denying a clear conclusion, [Wier’s poems] sustain possibilities and, by extension, sustain us as Wier’s poems sustain us...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJordan Sanderson, \u003cem\u003eThe Hollins Critic\u003c\/em\u003e, Vol. XLVI, No. 4\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLovechild of temple and cabinet of wonders, world-size Cornell box with moving parts and optional glass, Wier’s Selected Poems unsurprisingly grows stranger and lovelier the longer one lives in it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMichael Snediker, \u003cem\u003eJacket\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMuch of [Wier’s] imagining involves physical sensation, tactility recalling the nineteenth-century rural English poet John Clare, to whom Wier pays tribute. Wier’s warm touch belies her procedural cunning and post-confessional derring-do, making her \u003cem\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e required reading for a new generation of poets--not only for its own abundance of merits, but also as a counterpoint to the swath of theory-driven, reader-alienating poetries that threaten to define, for better or for worse, this era.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVirginia Konchan, \u003cem\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWier’s poems have an eidetic quality of image; they pass through the mind like ghosts in drag, elegant and unexpected. They resist the nothingness of abstraction, even as they abstract.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eMalvern Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: September 1, 2009\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517384 (5.5x8.25 224pp, trade hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dara Wier","offers":[{"title":"Trade Hard Cover","offer_id":207334511,"sku":"9781933517384","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/wier_selected_cover.jpg?v=1330474237"},{"product_id":"a-beaker","title":"A Beaker","description":"\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/caroline-knox\"\u003eCaroline Knox\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e “This poet is a wizard.” —\u003cem\u003eJames Merrill\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Beaker: New and Selected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e shows Knox’s particular insistence on painterly abstraction, linguistic goofiness, and formal rigor. Freewheeling allusive artifacts, Knox’s poems are visually precise, at times ornate, and often humorous. Selected from the poems of her three previous collections, and including a full complement of new poems,\u003cem\u003e A Beaker\u003c\/em\u003e places Knox among the most important and original poets of her generation. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e The hyper-literate Knox invites readers to “walk on the topos of previous perishing \/ literary remarks about mortality and mutability.” She uses “Nortony” as a pejorative and name-drops the Harvard rare-books library. She is often obscure, but her allusions are as much a sign of camaraderie as of scholarly pretension, her poems a pert crystallization impossible in more narrative poetry.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[Knox’s] poems are a tour de force of torque. They are under pressure. They are pressure, applied to language, applied to what the mind can do, and the senses....Knox [has a] gift not only for incision and intellectual agility, but also emotional resonance. [That] this sort of vitality on all levels is characteristic of Knox’s poems reminds me of how bland so much of contemporary poetry is, preferring to sound one note maybe two shy ones, while she strikes up the band and leads the whole gang of instruments down the street.\u003cstrong\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMary Ann Samyn, \u003cem\u003eElectronic Poetry Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere’s a poet who takes herself with a grain of salt. This is vital, graceful silliness reminiscent of Marianne Moore or John Ashbery....Her poems invite the more intellectual emotions: bemusement, the breathlessness of newborn understanding. They’re a treat for anyone who likes to have her brainstrings tugged.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Village Voice\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne might argue that nothing is sacred in Caroline Knox’s work, but it would be truer to its spirit to say that everything is sacred here, and all are welcome. “The variety and multiplicity of the universe‚” Knox knows, “is its joy as well as its puzzlement.” Like the exquisitely engraved vessel in the title poem, \u003cem\u003eA Beaker\u003c\/em\u003e has been carefully executed by a master of the craft.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRebecca Frank, \u003cem\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 1, 2002\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780970367273 (5.5x8.5 126pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Caroline Knox","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207416665,"sku":"9780970367273","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/ABeaker.jpg?v=1330555832"},{"product_id":"he-paves-the-road-with-iron-bars","title":"He Paves the Road with Iron Bars","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/caroline-knox\"\u003eCaroline Knox\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab3\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Time doesn’t pass in New England, the library just gets bigger. Reading Caroline Knox one is grateful for her idiosyncratic guidance through the selva of text exfoliated (sometimes) and juxtaposed collagistically at other times. The desire that moves the concentrate sol of these word engines is one more powerful in our world now than it was when the world was smaller, namely ‘I have to have a book to really read.’ I really read this one, and felt time spinning, not passing.”—\u003cem\u003eAndrei Codrescu\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWitty, compassionate, and restless, Knox fearlessly takes on NASCAR, numismatics, and canned Spam—and makes it all fascinating.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2005 Maurice English Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003eThis book is a collection of small explosions, startling lines nestled among the commons—not of machines, but of scholarship. The world of this book is a static of quotations and information, guided by whimsy and flavored with some wonderfully peculiar phrases.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMalinda Markham, \u003cem\u003eThe Antioch Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaroline Knox's fifth collection...reprises her use of quotes and utterances plucked from their contexts in poems that ultimately address their own creation. If this seems convoluted, it is, yet to sound effect. \u003cem\u003eHe Paves The Road With Iron Bars\u003c\/em\u003e is a stimulating hybrid of theory and poetry... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePenelope Cray, \u003cem\u003ePleiades\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2004\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9780972348768 (5.5x8.5 60pp, paperback)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Caroline Knox","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207416853,"sku":"9780972348768","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/HePaves.jpg?v=1330544922"},{"product_id":"dreams-of-a-robot-dancing-bee","title":"Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/james-tate\"\u003eJames Tate\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\" id=\"tab1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet James Tate’s only collection of short fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe forty-four stories of \u003ci\u003eDreams of a Robot Dancing Bee\u003c\/i\u003e will come as a welcome surprise to readers familiar with Tate’s previous work. Like Chekhov and Bruno Schultz, Tate seems both awed and bemused by small town life, with its legends, flights of fancy, heightened emotions, tragedies and small ruptures in the fabric of ordinary existence. Tate’s narrators are gleeful, peripatetic, dry, mundane, clueless, witty, and self-pitying; in their slightly odd, yet totally recognizable American idiom, they reveal a skewed, yet all the more familiar middle America. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003e Tate brings a poet’s touch to the short stories in this astounding and bizarre collection, which reflects the writer’s flair for black humor and absurdity as he explores the nooks and crannies of ordinary life. Tate is a blunt, sharp narrator who takes his stories in unexpected directions, and his talent for brevity surfaces in the many short-short entries that pack a powerful conceptual wallop in the space of a few pages ... fiction lovers who come to this book with an open mind will find themselves challenged and entertained by a brilliant writer with a very fertile imagination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese characters are not writers in disguise; they’re real people, their language is real, and their tales have a kind of stealth lyricism. These are stories only in the sense that they are narratives: plot is just a sheen, their soul is poetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike forty-four test tubes, these stories contain a series of meticulously prepared chemistry experiments... Tate, the long-acclaimed poet, uses a disarmingly pedestrian voice to lure the reader to a place of bizarre poignancy. He makes eccentricity look good, as a poet should.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBitterness, amusement, bemusement--you know things will end badly with this beginning: “She had placed the turkey in the garage two days before Thanksgiving, just as she had for years without any untoward consequence.” The consequences of decisions made by and about Tate’s characters are unexpected, often sad, sometimes sweet, always engaging.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarilyn Dahl, \u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen he turns to prose, this Pulitzer Prize-winning poet exhibits a surprisingly uncomplicated style. The reissue of his 2002 short story collection includes 44 oddly moving tales about vacationing spies, sour video-store managers and creepy, gynecologists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTimothy Hodler, \u003ci\u003eDetails\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe stories describe the natural tension between chaos and order in existence more accurately than the linear narrative of traditional prose ... It’s original, vibrant, accessible, and challenging. Some day a number of these stories will become part of another masterpiece of literature: the selected works of James Tate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJosh Cook, \u003ci\u003e Bookslut \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe may find the messy relationships and personal shortfalls to be the stuff of everyday life, but Tate’s language makes each of them hyper-real. Though we may not quite understand a narrator’s epiphany when phrased as “my husband is the raven of dawn,” we can understand her (and Tate’s) quest to make meaning out of nonsense-perhaps ultimately the very point of “everyday life.” Tate details such simultaneously obscure and lucid moments eloquently, almost expertly-and for that we can only say beep. Beep, honk.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMelissa Maerz, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c!--END REVIEWS--\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 4, 2002\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517353 (5.5x8.5 232pp, paperback)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9780970367259 (5.5x8.5 232pp, trade hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"James Tate","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207416981,"sku":"9781933517353","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Trade Hardcover","offer_id":207416983,"sku":"9780970367259","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":50255115944240,"sku":null,"price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/dreams_of_a_robot.jpg?v=1419361533"},{"product_id":"citizen-of","title":"Citizen Of","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003c!--AUTHOR AND PAGE DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/authors\/products\/christian-hawkey\"\u003eChristian Hawkey\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!--END DETAILS--\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca class=\"active\" href=\"#tab1\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"#tab2\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab1\" class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--DESCRIPTION--\u003e \u003ci\u003eMy chest is a kind of topsoil\u003cbr\u003eit always slips off in the rain\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn edgy and ominous second collection from one of contemporary poetry’s most promising new voices. In blurring the line of reality versus imagination, this turbulent dreamscape calls into question the frightening and surprising nature of the actual world. \u003c!--END DESCRIPTION--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"tab2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!--REVIEWS--\u003eThe title of this collection serves as a challenge to readers in a political climate where alarmism seems to alternate with complacency. “Hour with One Hand Inserted in a Time of War” asks, “Should we \/ stand guard at the Level of One Hand Raised \/ to Block the Lemon Seed of the Sun \/ or should we push off, down the tunnels, \/ dig a hole in the side of a wall \u0026amp; wait?” Hawkey effectively conjures a contemporary scene that seems peaceful, even while “Landmines whisper sideways underground.” Everyone, he says, is “no longer \/ a crow’s nest but a cluster of nests, \/ urban, suburban, some with turbans.” Humor, stemming more from exasperation than from delight, eases immersion into the tight-knit poems, but amid the laughter a loud alarm rings: “At least the bird’s brain was focused \/ on something.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his eagerly awaited second book, Hawkey continues to delve into surreal landscapes and word-bending sentences to create playful poems that entertain while also seeking orientation and stability in an imaginary world that mirrors the real one all too well. In an almost always deadpan tone, and usually in uneven columns or narrow couplets, Hawkey repurposes animals (“A horseshoe crab is a beautiful helmet”), relates natural and human phenomena (“pardon my shoulders,\/ they shake when I laugh,\/ the way the tip of a ship's mast\/ records, for no one-not even the sky-\/ the contours of a given wave”) and notes the precariousness of everyday life (“I tried to move the hole\/ but there was another hole\/ beneath it, which I fell through,\/ over and over”). Poems with the word “hour” in the title, spread throughout the collection, portray slices of unusual life: “Drainage\/ occurs, in real time.” Though they sometimes fizzle out at the end, there is much that is interesting in every one of these poems.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore than anything, Hawkey sustains these 126 pages with a wit that emerges from the contemporary bog of poetic near-humor as a stranger, funnier, more aware and more able variety of humor- one interested in topics as varied as corn and anarchy, and which is able to contort political reality and abstract space with the same fluidity. The odd and evident truth of statements such as “we are happily held vertically alive‚” or “A bookcase, \/ viewed from behind, is not \/ the back of anyone’s brains,” is an aspect of these poems (perhaps suggested by the absent yet implied word or phrase in the book’s title) that gives value to the momentary comprehension of one significant particular, made greater for knowing it in the absence of the whole. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSamuel Amadon, \u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt its simplest, a book like \u003ci\u003eCitizen Of\u003c\/i\u003e can be read as a kind of Tigger poetics (flouncy, bouncy, fun fun fun), and so long as you're not somebody incapable of reading poetry that doesn’t adhere to the social realism of an Auggie Kleinzhaler or Ted Kooser, this book is one delight upon another.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRon Silliman, \u003ci\u003eSilliman's Blog \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eCitizen Of\u003c\/i\u003e [Hawkey] allows his sprawling, rhizomatic poetics to include more. And ultimately this is the ethics of the book, one in which the poet does not look at an idea \u0026amp; comment on it but, through the rhetoric available exclusively to poetry, finds the spots where the distant becomes part of the immediate \u0026amp; personal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMathias Svalina, \u003ci\u003eOctopus Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf Hawkey’s first collection concerned itself with how one situates oneself in landscapes that are largely personal, then this book concerns itself more with how we situate ourselves in broader contexts; how we construct ourselves as “citizens of” towns, nations, the earth and the whole world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKathleen Rooney, \u003ci\u003eOpen Letters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHawkey writes in the tradition of John Ashbery. His poetic M.O. “to invoke a world that differs from ours in slight, suggestive ways” is perfectly encapsulated in “Birth of a Nation,” found halfway through this rollicking sophomore book, in which he asks, “is the measure of a nation how they dispose \/ of their waste? (If an island, how sad for the sea).” Wry, cynical and always awake to the political overtones of his surreal inventions, Hawkey likes to capture the inhabitants of his ur-world in the confusing act of self-realization, such as one man who is caught “making a video of himself typing \/ as a way to make what he was typing \/ real.” A few poems end insubstantially, but they’ve more than done their work by then.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c!--END BIO--\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"publication\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: April 1, 2007\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN# 9781933517162 (5.5x8.5 136pp, paperback)\u003cbr\u003eISBN# 9781933517179 (5.5x8.5 136pp, limited edition hardcover)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Christian Hawkey","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":207417735,"sku":"9781933517162","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Hardcover","offer_id":207417737,"sku":"9781933517179","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0117\/1312\/products\/CitizenOf.jpg?v=1330544308"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.wavepoetry.com\/collections\/books\/matthew-rohrer.oembed","provider":"Wave Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}