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Matthew Rohrer's Army of Giants is a diverse meditation on the ways in which the physical world intersects, overlaps, and informs the universe of the imagination.
Formally audacious, these are poems that playfully engage with word constraint, iambic pentameter, and long-sentence forms, keeping us in a constant state of surprise and curiosity. By sanctifying everything from lava lamps, cemeteries, and clouds to literary heroes such as Anna Akhmatova, Chika Sagawa, and Lewis Warsh, Matthew Rohrer continues his project of uncovering wonder wherever it can found. In poems that rise and build toward a gigantic peak at the center, Army of Giants provides new poetic vistas from which we can contemplate the worlds we inhabit.
Michael Brodeur, The Boston Globe
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
Rohrer writes poems that crackle and sputter, often branching toward new meaning and emotion within the span of a single line.
Publishers Weekly
Matthew Rohrer is the author of The Sky Contains the Plans (Wave Books, 2020), The Others (Wave Books, 2017), which was the winner of the 2017 Believer Book Award, Surrounded by Friends (Wave Books, 2015), Destroyer and Preserver (Wave Books, 2011), A Plate of Chicken (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Rise Up (Wave Books, 2007) and A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press, 2002), 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. His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at NYU. He can be reached at luminousfork@gmail.com.
ARMY OF THE DEAD
PRISONERS
THE GOOSE LEADER
WE SHALL OVERCOME
A LONELY TRUMPET
THE HANDOFF
DARKENED LIGHTHOUSE
SUNDAY NIGHT NOTHING’S WORSE
PASSED OVER
MY NEIGHBOR
AT MY LOWEST POINT
GREENWOOD
BIRTHDAY POEM
SWEET DREAMS
ARMY OF GIANTS
49
THE WINTER SUN
ARBORETUM
NATURE POEM ABOUT FLOWERS
SONGS OF WEST RIVER
LAVA LAMP
THE LITTLE MEN OF THE FOREST
ARMY OF POETS
JEREMY
STILL HAILING IN THE MOUNTAINS
LOVE POEM (FROM THE ARAN ISLANDS)
SKYLARK
FOLLOW THEM
VILETTE VILLANELLE
THE PALACE OF JUSTICE
FOR A FARRIER
POEMS FOR ANNA AHKMATOVA
POEM FOR CHIKA SAGAWA
THE HEART
SONNET
THE MAGIC BOX
POEM FOR REGINALD SHEPHERD
POEM FOR LEWIS WARSH
POEM
AN EVENING OF EZRA POUND
POEM FOR MIROSLAV HOLUB
GRACE
YEVTUSHENKO WAS THE KING