Cloud Tablets

by F. Daniel Rzicznek

“F. Daniel Rzicznek’s Cloud Tablets presents to us prose poems as they’re meant to be―chock full of surprising images and compelling music. Where else would we find sheep in a library and a seraphim at a nightclub other than in a prose poem? Rzicznek presents these moments and others with the right mix of narrative and lyricism. There’s a gasp of surprise in each of these poems, exclamation points of existential joy waiting in the marginalia.”―Gary LaFemina “F. Daniel Rzicznek harvests the world as process in fine detail, isolating the moment of perception as an act of faith. Read Cloud Tablets and learn the marvel of the wakened life; the vision is unsparing, exacting, and beautiful to know. Uncompromising in observation, unhesitant in lyric dream, Rzicznek’s lovely voice is original, stripped in its honesty as he encounters, in the most poetic of prose, the stubborn and flexible world.”―Amy Newman

Genres: Poetry

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2006

About the author

F. Daniel Rzicznek is the author of three poetry collections, Settlers (Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press, 2018), Divination Machine (Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press, 2009) and Neck of the World (Utah State University Press, 2007), as well as four chapbooks: Live Feeds (Epiphany, 2015), Nag Champa in the Rain (Orange Monkey Publishing, 2014), Vine River Hermitage (Cooper Dillon Books, 2011), and Cloud Tablets (Kent State University Press, 2006). His work has appeared in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, West Branch, Orion, and many other venues. Also coeditor (with Gary L. McDowell) of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice (Rose Metal Press, 2010), Rzicznek teaches writing at Bowling Green State University.

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry at its best. It is subtle and inviting, a smooth read. But when the poem ends, I'm always left with a surprise--thought-provoking, philisophical, lyric, and mystifying.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read new poet storming onto the scene.