WI(E)LD(Y) TRIO: Three “Backlist” Recommendations

RESIDUUM, MARTIN ROCK, 2016

If you feel

           think

           believe that poetry is as much about lies

                                                                      process as about epiphany;

if you believe that of publishing

                                  revision there is no end;

if you see not through the eye

                                          strike, which was made

                                                   , which was added

                                                   , which is secondary

                                                   -through, but with it, indeed, because of it;

if what you erase will remain with you

                                                after you’re gone;

—then Martin Rock’s Residuum is unequivocally for you!

                                                                                yours for a price!

— Joey Rooney, Editorial Assistant

ARENA, LAUREN SHAPIRO, 2020

If you like:

• sarcasm & spectacle;

• solo Metallica concerts;

• the best seat in the house;

• punctured moments;

• medleys of reckoning & elation;

• contextualizing public vs. private;

• sound, structure, & sound structure;

• self-awareness & cognitive dissonance;

• gray areas / gray arenas;

• claustrophobic snapshots;

then you’ll want to read Arena.

— Kristen Tetzmann, Editorial Assistant

DREAM BOAT, SHELLEY FELLER, 2020

IF YOU HAVE EVER BEEN A SOLD A BOOK YOU KNOW HOW GREAT IT FEELS AND IF I HAVE EVER SOLD YOU A BOOK IT WAS PROBABLY SHELLEY FELLER’S DREAM BOAT WHICH THE POETRY CENTER PUBLISHED IN TWENTY TWENTY BECAUSE IT IS ONE OF THE EASIEST BOOKS FOR ME TO TALK ABOUT TO STRANGERS ENEMIES AND FRIENDS SINCE IT CHANGED SLASH RUINED MY LIFE FOREVER WHEN I FIRST READ IT IN MANUSCRIPT FORM AS A PRINTED OUT MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT IN TWENTY NINETEEN LATE FOR A STAFF MEETING BECAUSE ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SOUND AND CHAOS AND DENSITY WHICH I ONLY WAS ABLE TO GRASP FUMBLINGLY AS A NOT YET GRADUATED FINE ARTS CHERUB WHO COULD BARELY READ WAS SOMETHING I HAD NOT YET ENCOUNTERED IN POEMS TO SUCH A DEGREE AND FELT LIKE A NEW YET SOMEHOW FAMILIAR SLIME INFECTING MY SMOOTH SAD BROKEN BRAIN OF IDIOT RONALD MCDONALD MUSIC BOX BEING CRANKED BY A DRUNK FLAMINGO SONGS AND I LAUGHED SO MUCH WHILE FEELING SO GROSSED OUT AND SO ABJECTED JUST RESOUNDLINGLY ADJECTIVED LOOSING ODD SOUR TEARS ALL OVER CLEVELAND STATE’S FLOODED LIBRARY FOR ALL THE WEIRD FEAR AND TOTAL BRAVERY OCCURRING ON THESE BINDER-CLIPPED PRINTER PAGES I WAS SEE-HEARING SO THEN I WENT AND READ HOPKINS AND DID YOU KNOW THERE IS A HART CRANE PARK IN CLEVELAND IT IS DOWN IN THE AREA CALLED THE FLATS ACROSS THE RIVER FROM THE BAR CALLED HOOPPLES WHERE THEY PLAY THE LOCAL ROCK RADIO STATION THAT DOESN’T COME IN VERY LOUD UNDER THE BRIDGE AND THE OTHER DAY I SAW A BOAT THERE CALLED AMERICAN COURAGE AND AMERICAN COURAGE WAS COMING AROUND THE BEND AND THE BRIDGE THE BRIDGE LO IT LIFTED FOR AMERICAN COURAGE AND HART CRANE WAS FROM CLEVELAND AND NOT FROM NEW YORK OR PARIS AND I NEED YOU TO KNOW THIS IT IS TERRIBLY IMPORTANT I’M SORRY CAPS LOCK GOT STUCK ON

— Zach Peckham, Managing Editor