Even through the clamor of war, garbage trucks, stolen cars, and crying babies, Rohrer maintains an alluring tranquility, a Taoist chill to temper a casualness that might otherwise get flagged as too hip. Li Po and Rumi drink jugs of wine, “Wu Wei" presides calmly over the lovely closing poem that takes his name, and clouds drift from one poem to the next.
—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

Over the past year, I found Elisa Gabbert, Sarah Manguso and Matthew Rohrer to have made some life-changing books of poetry—especially Rohrer's book The Others, which goes from one vision to the next in a breathtaking way.
—Andrew Sean Greer, PBS NewsHour

Matthew Rohrer is the author of The Others (Wave Books, 2017, winner of the 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 and teaches at NYU.

Everybody's relation to change in the sack

Then he was thrown out of Espresso Royale

Did you eat your blossoms on time?

It will seem like nothing happened

We probably shouldn't be discussing this

The zipper-upper or whatever –here's yours

This is my challenge to you

Conserve-a-lawyer

They kidnapped Alabama

I wish a fire would destroy that whole neighborhood so they could start over

It's under oath

You don't think there's going to be a world of motion

Slam the word to make it pretty

We waited in his plant now 2 to 2

You're consuming darkness

One navy painting

Where are my other planets?

It's not like I have his death on my foot

You've got a hollow look

The rocking horse said family desire

Never lights as dim as Sara

The canoe is not sitting up by itself

He fell on his ass he might have been captured

What shall I do 42-71?

Yesterday could do a better job of explaining that than I could

The coughing brings me back to level one

If you saw me you'd be swallowed by a yellow bus

So Now I Determine She Was A Selective Victim

It was nice to sleep with him as a young girl

But when you were counting you skipped 6, 7 and 8

Alright smell your finger

I visualized that idea leaving my head in a bathysphere

A toy spaceship called Almond Chicken

My name is Tromas Neebar

Spoken creases

Poetry can be a weapon of war

Brief, almost microscopic attempts made on my life

You look vintage

Pre-linguistic-mystery

As I step into the chamber of our imagined love

Seahorses are awesome

You will notice a faithful block of cheese is present

Hypoallergenic condominium

But that isn't really the threat of nostalgia, is it?

Between whose human rocks I lay

He seems lost to a partisan girl.

It was one of the blooming complaints of my campaign

That seemed voluminous

Try to go away and lie in bed simultaneously

If you're going to be a charming off-the-top-of-your-head guy, then do your work

Building up to it is actually better

I follow art—it goes places and I come with it

I was warned I might be losing her another peasant

They're an empty space whose intrigue is just that

This home is the light

Penetrated into the dream

Feathery wood fiend

Families sharing music with each other

Your dirty little beard is like a runway

You can't have 2 power sources in your car because they would interfere with each other

A mundane hideout

I created their career information for them

I only smoke cigarettes on your rotation

I'll slit your barrel

Dragging a metal thing right to your front door

The best thing she knows about going to banks is where they are

Rediscovering the baby's lecture presentation

If you eat this cookie I won't let you in to paradise.

Author's Note

Afterward