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Illocality
"I find it refreshing and somehow also sobering to observe the way Massey sticks so closely to the perceptual world. Like William Carlos Williams, he challenges us to see the value in putting things in words."—Rae Armantrout, American Poet Joseph Massey composed Illocality in his first year in western Massachusetts. Massey's austere landscapes channel the quiet shock, euphoria, and introspection that come with reorientation to place. His language fights apathy with grace and sensitivity. Here are poems with their eyes on seasons, plants, sunlight, and animals, all the while looking for stability and the language to describe it. From "Parse": The speed
at which sleep's
fogged dialogue withers into the present
noun-scape This rift valley A volley of
seasonal beacons Joseph Massey is the author of Areas of Fog (Shearsman Books, 2009), At the Point (Shearsman Books, 2011), To Keep Time (Omnidawn, 2014), as well as thirteen chapbooks and various limited-edition broadsides and folios. His work has also appeared in many journals and magazines, including The Nation , A Public Space , American The Journal of the Academy of American Poets , Verse , Western Humanities Review , Quarterly West ; and in the anthologies Visiting Dr. Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams (University of Iowa Press, 2011), Haiku in The First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013) and Please Excuse This 100 New Poems for the Next Generation (Viking Penguin, 2015).
at which sleep's
fogged dialogue withers into the present
noun-scape This rift valley A volley of
seasonal beacons Joseph Massey is the author of Areas of Fog (Shearsman Books, 2009), At the Point (Shearsman Books, 2011), To Keep Time (Omnidawn, 2014), as well as thirteen chapbooks and various limited-edition broadsides and folios. His work has also appeared in many journals and magazines, including The Nation , A Public Space , American The Journal of the Academy of American Poets , Verse , Western Humanities Review , Quarterly West ; and in the anthologies Visiting Dr. Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams (University of Iowa Press, 2011), Haiku in The First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013) and Please Excuse This 100 New Poems for the Next Generation (Viking Penguin, 2015).
120 pages, Hardcover
First published September 8, 2015
3 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Massey
32 books78 followersJoseph Massey is the author of A New Silence (forthcoming from Shearsman Books), Illocality (Wave Books, 2015) and a trilogy grounded in the landscape of coastal Humboldt County, California: Areas of Fog (Shearsman Books, 2009), At the Point (Shearsman Books, 2011), and To Keep Time (Omnidawn, 2014).
His chapbooks include Minima St. (Range, 2003), Eureka Slough (Effing Press, 2005), Bramble (Hot Whiskey, 2005), Property Line (Fewer & Further, 2006), Out of Light (Kitchen Press, 2008), Within Hours (Fault Line Press, 2008), The Lack Of (Nasturtium Press, 2009), Exit North (Book Thug, 2010), Thaw Compass (Press Board Press, 2014), An Interim (Tungsten Press, 2014), What Follows (Ornithopter Press, 2015), Present Conditions (Hollyridge Press) and 5 Poems (Tungsten Press, 2018).
His work has appeared in many journals and magazines, including The Nation, A Public Space, American Poet: The Journal of the Academy of American Poets, Verse, GeoHumanities, Talisman, and in
anthologies: Visiting Dr. Williams: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams (University of Iowa Press, 2011), Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013), Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poems for the Next Generation (Viking Penguin, 2015), The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (Belknap Press, 2016), and Renga for Obama (Harvard University Press, 2018).
He worked as an instructor and teaching assistant for the University of Pennsylvania’s ModPo (Modern and Contemporary Poetry) MOOC, which serves thousands of students, worldwide, at no cost. He now teaches privately.
He lives in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts.
His chapbooks include Minima St. (Range, 2003), Eureka Slough (Effing Press, 2005), Bramble (Hot Whiskey, 2005), Property Line (Fewer & Further, 2006), Out of Light (Kitchen Press, 2008), Within Hours (Fault Line Press, 2008), The Lack Of (Nasturtium Press, 2009), Exit North (Book Thug, 2010), Thaw Compass (Press Board Press, 2014), An Interim (Tungsten Press, 2014), What Follows (Ornithopter Press, 2015), Present Conditions (Hollyridge Press) and 5 Poems (Tungsten Press, 2018).
His work has appeared in many journals and magazines, including The Nation, A Public Space, American Poet: The Journal of the Academy of American Poets, Verse, GeoHumanities, Talisman, and in
anthologies: Visiting Dr. Williams: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams (University of Iowa Press, 2011), Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013), Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poems for the Next Generation (Viking Penguin, 2015), The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (Belknap Press, 2016), and Renga for Obama (Harvard University Press, 2018).
He worked as an instructor and teaching assistant for the University of Pennsylvania’s ModPo (Modern and Contemporary Poetry) MOOC, which serves thousands of students, worldwide, at no cost. He now teaches privately.
He lives in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 23, 2015
"Phrase after phrase
falls into place, out of
place, rewriting a world."
falls into place, out of
place, rewriting a world."
October 8, 2015
Beautifully evocative of winter.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews