Description
Book SynopsisRaconteur, poet, and NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu delivers in his inimitable, irreverent style a collection that traverses subjects from aging to consumerism and religion to mass media. Brilliantly funny yet deeply insightful, these poems illuminate Codrescu's acerbic tone and outsized personality and capture the best of his oeuvre. Andrei Codrescu was born in Sibiu, Romania in 1946, and immigrated to the United States in 1966. The author of more than thirty-five books, Codrescu has edited the literary magazine Exquisite Corpse, and his provocative commentary is featured regularly on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Codrescu currently resides in Arkansas.
Trade ReviewIncluded in 2013 National Book Award Longlist! Entertainment Weekly, included in "Must List" (2012 Year-end issue, tablet version) "For Codrescu, culture is no more nor less than the whole, and poetry its most faithful handmaiden. In a world where poetry is still often considered a highbrow pastime and a relic of a former cultural era, Codrescu's exceptionally varied writing and career represent a kind of home run for poets and poetry everywhere."--Recours au Poeme "Codrescu's distinctive, playful, and iconoclastic work has always gone its own way... [his] work stands as a distinctive chapter in the story of the New York School, and contemporary American poetry more broadly."--Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets "[O]ccasionally, as one grows older, it's time to tell it like it is. That, in any case, is the 'bridge work' of the new poems in this impressive collection, and it is surely the case that for Codrescu, 'parentheses not closed.'"--Marjorie Perloff, Los Angeles Review of Books "One of our most prodigiously talented and magical writers." --New York Times Book Review "If Codrescu's poetry has represented to some extent a mordant or ironic paen of the schizophrene, this observer has loved it. By providing this illogical logic, often using a surrealist lens, Codrescu illumines just how fractured our lives have become. He does so with a deft painterly touch... In this new and selected book of poems, Codrescu is still one of our most skilled interlocutors and he sings above the abyss skillfully."--Best American Poetry "So Recently Rent a World is a book rich in poetry and history... ingeniously organized."--BODY "So Recently Rent a World gathers new poems and selections from the 16 books of verse that Codrescu has published since arriving in the U.S. as a teen refuge from communist Romania...'So Recently Rent a World let me to put a period on four decades writing and the old culture that the writing reflected."--The Times-Picayune "Andrei Codrescu is today the great American poet of intercultural encounter, absolutely exceptional in his capacity to elucidate with analytical power, emotional sensitivity, and lyric force the most revealing points of tension between ethical and imaginative perceptions in a world under the gun. With sympathy for eruptions against authority, Codrescu has infused child-man rebellion and passionate desire into the many poems of self-recollection that are now presented with incisive comment and context in this 408 page collection entitled So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems: 1968-2012."--The Bacon Review "Since his emigration from Romania in the late 1960s, his work has lodged itself in the poetic consciousness of both America and Europe for its sheer edges -- its energy, its voice, its deft wit, and like all great dadaists, at heart, he is the hardest of realists, a man who cannot lie to himself above all others, in his poetry or in his ebullient criticism, journalism and collected writing." --Poetry International "For Codrescu, culture is no more nor less than the whole, and poetry its most faithful handmaiden. In a world where poetry is still often considered a highbrow pastime and a relic of a former cultural era, Codrescu's exceptionally varied writing and career represent a kind of home run for poets and poetry everywhere." --Recours au Poeme "Codrescu's distinctive, playful, and iconoclastic work has always gone its own way... [his] work stands as a distinctive chapter in the story of the New York School, and contemporary American poetry more broadly." --Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets
Table of Contentsso recently a rent world: new and selected poems by andrei codrescu TABLE OF CONTENTS bridge work architecture master manole to anna the wallpaper of mr. r.k (after max jacob) a leafy angel (to the columns hotel) did something miss new orleans? the mold song comrade past & mister present lu li and weng li lu li 27 poems weng li 40 poems leaves of nerves alice henderson-codrescu 14 poems julio hernandez 8 poems some days saturnian dilemma tete-a-tete sonnet for allan kornblum the penal cavalry evening particulier (for max jacob) avanti the monk calvin boone, osd 18 poems de natura rerum & ("I hate...") here secret training dream (1) the urges dream (2) power silence on translation biographical notes 5 ways of saying the same thing designs & power untitled ("and in her memory...") epitaph “the woods” at midnight breakfast elegy what want ye the view from the baby seat crossed hands sweat the small stuff circle jerk the gambling phoenix ode to curiosity untitled ("MAN" and "WOMAN"...) ode to laryngitis paper on humor october 17 october 19 face portrait early fix new morning a grammar poetry paper sea sickness the history of the growth of heaven the good spirit why write eugenio montale in california a point books san francisco for whomever late night san francisco three types of loss roto: how the bourgeois dream petite madeleine 2 plays volcanic dirge & co. thieves seasons bilingual les fleurs de cinema port of call mail poetry the travels of a vigilante body blues casting new york to my heart russia or the weakness of photography the life on film of st. theresa jingling the cookery getting there the yes log paper on humor the new gazette invitation to a molecular feast en passant the question of personnel the differences (for barbara szerlip) the marriage of insult & injury a cook in hell toward the end of 1969 tetrachlorine election the fourth of july (for ted berrigan) the park orbital complexion xerox the spirit and be well space souffle old snake ponders old cities sadness unhinged against meaning music ("there were no bums in my pores...") belligerence belligerence demands of exile (for dorin tudoran) y un cancion por e. eulogy for men (for ruxandra) momentary bafflement with return home at dawn coquillage a serious morning irony as nursery the threat sexual politics near sonnet untitled ("It takes joy to listen..." drowning another peasant inquisition at home opium for archie anderson poem blues for casanova dear masoch peter boone: 9 poems (divided by asterisks; run continuous) love and the documents remembrance of my forgotten skinniness muffled by a belt across the mouth all they do is talk snail sail opium for britt wilkie manifesto the origin of electricity a face about photography salt desk 07 in the reading room at the british library the inner source every tie november 6, 1984 punished by capitalism tristan tzara the man who said no (for kenneth koch) ars polis the discovery of prayer cohere britannia topiary when lightning struck, I when lightning struck, II slot-o-topia lipstick bicycle model work visitors from the dancing world sunday sermon 1968 for leonard cohen a geography of poets virgin mule the goldrush looks from money rain working for profit the imagination of necessity love simmers the stew of the dead staying with it don't wait for me the masses are constantly on the telephone music your country old photo trains the police seeing out of the sub (for alice) untitled ("just because there is more sex..." matinee a good thing when i see one a still selavie the other end drizzle off the ocean wishes the work & the labor mnemogasoline the first icon with gun in the supermarket dollar dance au bout du temps in the picture above (for laura) stock report the american dream how it happened grammar the best side of me us the revolution and the poet eliade: a poem it was today I'm here to open a couple of wounds in jerusalem on my 48th birthday let us now praise a famous fool (for james hillman) essay a petite histoire of red fascism five one-minute eggs as tears go by a francis ponge houses, scams, languages january 3, 2001 to poetry brancusi's bird school daze I not a pot to piss in laura birthday poem & bed-frame i.o.u the portuguese eat a dish wisdom "keep old hat in secret closet" in memory of the 20th century christmas in new york (for laura) nickelodeon history and (poetry) class dave's dream my going out dream to have its dream french quarter morning the new millenium auschwitz and the summer of love "if you're news you're meat" my name is andrei codrescu (for tristan) torture and evolution signifier legacy: letters it was today, but please note and correct major name mistake the incoming sneeze or the old man's nose the zen post office (for pat nolan) my son came over babies and the two often after a public event alberta history fear talismanic ceremony for lucian sheep (patriotic poetry) sit down untitled ("Honesty can't be encouraged..." for thom gunn center piece the lady painter narcissus fattened on drunkenness to a young poet another year sentenced to the frost the gulf of mexico (social realism) work walnuts ars poetica arse poetica 2: the art of restraint life haikus david franks blue jew notes intention (for tom clark) pastoral a human touch misunderstood ars poetica ( for ludwig zeller) once present at the ceremony
