Apocalypse Ranch

by Sara Burge

Poetry. Winner of C&R Press's 2009 De Novo Award for a first book of poetry. "Sara Burge's debut volume is a real barn-burner. In the poems of APOCALYPSE RANCH every word is written as if the human and animal lives of her native Missouri Ozarks depend upon it. With assiduous attention to detail, the 'rotting houses' and 'broken farms' of small-town America are given a realistic and often disturbing perspective. Burge's voice is decidedly her own--unapologetic, hard as nails, divulging the shotgun suicides and drowned children of families who are up to their necks in a 'Pomona Triangle' of rusted engine blocks and 'human insincerity.' In poem after poem, Burge pushes away the psychological barriers we erect with self-delusion, idolatry, or neglect, and gives voice to difficult truths about the human condition"--Marcus Cafagna.

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Jessica Beasley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a teacher of mine. He said I might empathize with Burge, being from a small town myself. As soon as I read the first poem, I knew that he was spot on. I loved the book. I've gone back and read my favorites multiple times already. It's definitely a book I'll be revisiting in the near future. Burge is contemporary, can be dark and sentimental, but isn't saturated with sadness, and just as easily as she can make your heart hurt, she can put a smile on your face. Check this out if you love poetry.

[Cynthia Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful, honest and raw collection. It should be getting more attention, meaning, I should have heard about it, LOL!

[Michael Meyerhofer · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you take a genre like poetry that already has a fairly small readership, and add to that the fact that hundreds of books come out every year, it's inevitable that some great books don't get anywhere near the attention they deserve. This is one of them. Burge manages to combine engaging narrative with fresh, unexpected lyricism (not to mention a wicked sense of humor). Line by line, these poems hint at painstaking craft; at the same time, there's a lot of raw, smoldering energy here. In another universe, the stars aligned and this book got the kind of attention normally reserved for Mary Oliver, Sharon Olds, Billy Collins, Tony Hoagland, etc.