WALLOP

by Jordan Stempleman

An iceberg celebrates, by accident, its birthday. The highway patrol approach a wet sofa left by the side of the road, discussing later what they could've done better with their heat. Jordan Stempleman's newest collection, WALLOP, crunches through the dirty snow of trying to love when love is gone, heaving from room to room, humming from joke to dark, car to gym, chainsaws and milkweed, bathroom faucets that fall apart in your hands, history private and public, men shaving in the public water fountain. No one is saying health even happens, but if it did, it might happen like Stempleman says: 'There are stupid things we put in us. / Some of these things go from stupid to nothing. / A few never really leave.'

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Jordan Stempleman's most recent collections of poetry are Wallop (Magic Helicopter Press, 2015), No, Not Today (Magic Helicopter Press, 2012) and Doubled Over (BlazeVOX, 2009). He co-edits The Continental Review, teaches writing and literature at the Kansas City Art Institute, and curates A Common Sense Reading Series.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

his poems. these carry a deep melancholy but where is the self pity. just about none. just sadness. maybe not the poet’s but some of the reader’s own. the poems don’t say what the sadness is about. but there is a husband a wife and there are children. and it’s okay to hide behind bushes or dreams or old clothes. muttering. sometimes the hiding is the visible point. sometimes.

the internet tells me that Baudelaire said I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy. and what do you know. here’s much beauty in Wallop by Jordan Stempleman.