And So

by Brouwer, Joel

• ISBN13: 9781884800917
• ISBN10: 1884800912
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-01
• Publisher: Four Way Books

Summary

And So, the third collection by Joel Brouwer frames and zooms close-up on lovers and strangers as they couple and recoil. Cynical yet energetic, And So is a considered study of the ways we tell the lives we lead. With its poignant lacunae and recurring events, Brouwer offers an unstinting look at how separate our lives together are.

Author Biography

JOEL BROUWER'S two previous collections of poems are Exactly What Happened (Purdue University Press, 1999), and Centuries (Four Way Books, 2003). He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. He teaches at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Table of Contents

The Rehearsal

At left a yellow flat of sunlight leans

Against a raw brick wall. Two cats--one white

One black--slump along the vast windowsill

As if drugged. Their little fangs glisten.

A suggestion of steeple beyond the window

Coupled with a recording of children

Shouting in the imaginary square below

Conjures an older quarter. Red sofa stage right.

Coffee table strewn with breakfast's remnants.

Dish of bloody berries, greasy pages torn from a pastry, a coffee cup set down

Absently, titled on its saucer. And on the sofa she's reading newspapers.

The world is dramatic but not tragic...

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.