Long Division

by Alan Michael Parker

Poetry. In his seventh poetry collection, Alan Michael Parker aims to surprise. Recombining lists, fables, and mathematical equations, LONG DIVISION is formally playful, wielding irony as a lever of political resistance. Here is a writer fascinated by comedy, by sadness, and by the unexpected ways that poetry makes both possible at once. When was the last time you laughed out loud reading poems? Parker's new work is truly funny, exposing the impossibility of realism in a world where imagination is more trustworthy than experience.

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2012

About the author

Alan Michael Parker is the author of eight books of poems, four novels, and editor of five reference works on poetry. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in journals. Parker teaches at Davidson College, where he is Douglas C. Houchens Professor of English, and in the University of Tampa low-residency M.F.A. program. His awards include three Pushcart Prizes, the 2013 and 2014 Randall Jarrell Award, the North Carolina Book Award, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America.

Reviews

[Janna Shaftan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each word was simultaneously narcotic and nuclear and cracked into the air like ice, arriving at the exact right moment in all of time

To cavort in the negative space of all we’ll never know

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We confess, we have loved others,

our jobs too tight, our whispered hopes unraveling
as every night we tried again,
rehearsed ourselves for you."

—"Epithalamion Upon a Third Marriage"

[Therese L. Broderick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This clever, quirky, amusing book could have been written just for me. Or, for anyone like me: a stereotypical middle-class American in middle-age who micro-manages my front lawn, orders supper from take-out menus, worships the all-powerful checklist or the repackaged morality tale, and occasionally visits the zoo or opera. The poems in LONG DIVISION break down our everyday preoccupations to common remainders -- how we give it our best; how we succeed or fail in meager ways; how we wonder, bemusedly, at our own inconsequentiality. Given that the book's first poem is entitled "A Christmas Letter," LONG DIVISION would make a timely gift this holiday season-- especially for anyone who watches re-runs of sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond.

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whimsical and playful in mathematical poetry is not something I ever thought I would write in a review. And then entered Alan Michael Parker's Long Division. One of the more enjoyable collections of poetry I have read in some time. I read it three times over the course of the last month while working on a school assignment (annotation) of the book. While I did not enjoy the poems of lists (there were a few of them), I thoroughly enjoyed the following: Family Math, A Fable for Our Anniversary, Night Bus in Vegas, Et in Arcadia Ego, & Apologetic Ditty.

[Patrick Mcgee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a collection of Parker's before and loved it. He has a quirky style I enjoy, but at the same time inserts lines or ends poems that resonate with feeling. I think he's quite accessible and a very good poet. Check out some of his work.

[Sheri Fresonke Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of poems featuring math in the content, some by count, some counting, but all about life and living. Good, rich detail and consistent voice.