"Much of his book plays with notions of agency. There is a particularly effective destabilizing shift between the third-person mode of some of his poems' titles and the 'I' that then acts out those titles . . . Koeneke's blend of pathos, erudition, and whimsy results in an enjoyable collection that rewards repeated engagement."
Publishers Weekly

Rodney Koeneke is author of the poetry collections Body & Glass (forthcoming, Wave Books, 2018), Etruria(Wave Books, 2014), Musee Mechanique (BlazeVOX, 2006), and Rouge State(Pavement Saw, 2003). An early member of the Flarf collective, he was active in the San Francisco Bay Area poetry scene until 2006, when he moved to Portland, Oregon where he teaches in the History Department at Portland State University.

Contents 1. his armormed team 2. tarnish the coppice, punk autumn 3. song of the south 4. thanks to the 250+ participants 5. psalmish 6. scott walker sings 7. syrtos 8. the new hellenism 9. to an indie friend in havasu 10. whose voice to have called you 11. humber, severn, mersey, thames and ouse 12. an epitaph on the french prophets 13. young historian’s scoring rubric 14. berceuse 15. his first time in ankara 16. he accounts for the art’s current state 17. another hapless functionary 18. schottische 19. first there’s his heart destroying the strega 20. passerine 21. san francisco 22. urdu made easy 23. gulag 24. apology to pasternak 25. false consciousness is people not understanding their actual role in society 26. the new world 27. kenosis 28. things unseen 29. poem for bruce 30.the new poetics 31. the work they do they do at night 32. a field in England 33. it might as well be spring 34. son oscuro 35. after lunch, some poems 36. bug’s psalm 37. he continually puts autumn in his writing 38. tutor song 39. poem with line by kazimir malevich 40. mozambique 41. parable 42. sort of a north country song 43. anniversary 44. theoria 6 45. the shape of russian literature 46. zoroastrianism is the least well known of the world’s religions 47. a formal unfreezing 48. the new sobriety 49. pastorale 50. mazurka 51. simonides 52. his concert experience 53. year of the monkey 54. in the backlands of the province 55. he gives himself this one reprieve