A Green Light [Paperback]

Matthew Rohrer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0972348778 | ISBN-13: 978-0972348775 | Publication Date: May 1, 2004 | Edition: First Edition

Matthew Rohrer’s simple, hilarious, generous and strangely disquieting poems conjure versions of the most familiar aspects of our lives—friendship, marriage, childhood, work—into which intrude incongruous, peculiar, fantastical, yet somehow totally recognizable elements. Over and over these poems leave us convinced that we’ve learned something very important and mysterious, yet we can’t say exactly what.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rohrer won the National Poetry Series 10 years ago with A Hummock in the Malookas; this fourth book of poetry follows hard on the heels of Nice Hat. Thanks, his comic-verse collaboration with Joshua Beckman. Though it includes serious ecological themes (notably in "Hone Quarry," a series of 56-syllable stanzas about a camping trip), this wary, slippery new volume's dominant notes are deadpan humor and bleak nonstop irony. "No one watches over us unless our uncles/ are flying planes," Rohrer warns in "I Hail from the Bottom of the Sea, the Land of Eternal Darkness." Another long poem, "MK Ultra" (named for the CIA's infamous LSD tests), shows a "patron saint of corridors" chowing down on "the most/ gorgonzola he'd ever eaten." If Rohrer sometimes seems (like James Tate) out to entertain, he also (like Tate) tries to learn from Eastern Europeans, whose juxtapositions poked fun at the absence of God, or described life inside a police state. On occasion Rohrer captures not just their humor but their urgency. Much of the volume, however, ends up so committed to its self-conscious stance that the poems have time for little else: with lines like "I want to be an interesting story/ none of you really remembers," they're less Tomasz Salamun than David Letterman.
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Review

Equal parts punk rock and pastoral... a voice that seems unearthly in its ability to be detached and simultaneously tender. -- American Poet

Rohrer's poems run up the banner of hopefulness... a book of brash clamour and hard-earned joy. -- Judges' Citation, the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist

There are poems in A Green Light that can break your heart with their unexpected twists and turns. -- James Tate

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Wave Books; First Edition edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972348778
• ISBN-13: 978-0972348775
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #561,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine New Voice, December 2, 2006

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Driver9 (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Green Light (Paperback)

There is no poet speaking the same language as Matthew Rohrer, subtle, powerful, engmatic, elegant. His voice is entirely distinctive and I am very surprised to be the only person reviewing this book of poetry so far, and it was published in 2004. What gives?

"But what good is the incantation
against an Empire?
The answer is on the other side
of the Moon we're not supposed to see."