Description
Book Synopsis"Rohrer's frequently beautiful, brief poems are rooted in specific images that initially seem unrelated--but which ultimately form a unity as meditations on how the ordinary distractions of everyday life can be seen as the source for almost everything important in life."--Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly The poems in Matthew Rohrer's seventh poetry collection are generated by, and embrace, friendships with the living, the dead, and the inanimate. Friends, family, and the urban peoplescape are gathered together in these poems, with more and more poetic voices joining in, and ending with poems written "in collaboration" with Kobayashi Issa, Yosa Buson, Matsuo Basho, and Hafiz. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LONELIER There is absolutely nothing lonelier than the little Mars rover never shutting down, digging up rocks, so far away from Bond Street in a light rain. I wonder if he makes little beeps? If so he is lonelier still. He fires a laser into the dust. He coughs. A shiny thing in the sand turns out to be his. Matthew Rohrer has received the Hopwood Award for poetry, a Pushcart Prize, was selected as a National Poetry Series winner by Mary Oliver, and was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize. He is the co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks., and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He has appeared on NPR's All Things Considered and The Next Big Thing. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at NYU.
Table of ContentsOne Bicyclette Batavus, Fabriqué En Hollande, Ca. 1904 Sudden Summer A Little Rain There Is Absolutely Nothing Lonelier Le Machine Ate Himself A Pair Of Ducks Brooklyn Is Covered in Little Pieces Of Paper The World’s Most Famous Painting The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg at the Grey Gallery, Nyc Where I Lived The Garden of Bees In the Ancient Tapestries Autumn Glory How To Live The Ants Birthday Sonnet Pavilion of Leaves The Model Farm Is Therapeutic A Little Sign Now That Shirt Is Bittersweet There Is A Flower Hank’s Saloon Fuck the Banks Poem for Edna St. Vincent Millay Two Crossing Underneath the Water Mother’s Day Bus Pass Anemometer Bull Shark And Now Kids! Dark Inside, Bright Outside, A Magritte A Perfume She Stepped Outside Dulcimer and Flute (While Syria Destroys Itself) Across the Country Hurry Home Bad Weather Plan #4 Poem for My Sister He Has a Job, but It’s a Sad Job In the Park Poem Shaman from Thailand At Dante’s House Two Poems for Issa The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Magnolia Petals Falling on Bricks Hello Mermen Homage to Attila József Volkswagen Rabbit Poem for Virgil Banescu Three Poem Written with Buson Poem Written with Basho Poem Written with Basho Poem Written with Buson Poem Written with Basho Poem Written with Issa Poem Written with Issa Poem Written with Issa Poem Written with Issa Poem Written with Basho Poem Written with Buson Poem Written with Basho Poem Written with Issa Poem Written with Basho Four Translations from Hafiz The Emperor
