Spool

by Matthew Cooperman

WINNER OF THE NEW MEASURE POETRY PRIZE | FREE VERSE EDITIONS, edited by JON THOMPSON | "SPOOL'S a year 'written in threes'-its three word lines forming narrow columns or perhaps threads. 'Thread' is a word Cooperman explicitly associates with the lyric here and it is also Ariadne's thread of rescue or at least return though, at times, 'the tape is/broken now so / sick and slck.' To change up the metaphor, as this poem does, SPOOL is a hive of words continuously active and also continuously threatened with a sort of colony collapse. Written in conversation with past greats such as Shakespeare, Milton, Hopkins, SPOOL is a way of inhabiting our present." -RAE ARMANTROUT | "Carefully wrought, these taut, concentrated poems move together on a fundamental level between limit and enlargement, impatience and watching, intention and play. Three words to the turn 'of increments serializing' pull out and wind back a  'current between you / and me rivers.' Cooperman's SPOOL is remarkable." -PAM REHM | "Cooperman spools his investigations of wild domesticity on 'parcels of sound,' 'peace bullets,' 'creaks on cricket / strings,' tumbrels tilted to shake free 'the bird O' of his daughter's throat. An animal in the material sunders as it lands thought in language, birds in words. 'Have you seen / your hands  in/ dreams?' The poems are concerned with things rare and daily, with 'beginning to see / and continuing to / see.' With how to mend and live more generously in care of things near, sewing what we rend. SPOOL learns its part in the evolutionary drama of species, rent beyond repair yet ongoing, even exuberant. The poem winds together opposites, as it tweets 'the vireo's here' and after. Intimate work from a master of the panorama, the landscapes here are inside words." -JONATHAN SKINNER | A former Provincetown Fellow, MATTHEW COOPERMAN is the author of, most recently, the text + image collaboration Imago for the Fallen World, w/Marius Lehene (Jaded Ibis Press, 2013), as well as of the Earth as the Ark which Does Not Move (Counterpath Press, 2011), DaZE (Salt Publishing Ltd., 2006) and A Sacrificial Zinc (Pleiades/LSU, 2001), winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize. Four chapbooks exist in addition, including Little Spool, winner of the 2014 Pavement Saw Chapbook Prize. A founding editor of Quarter After Eight, and co-poetry editor of Colorado Review, Cooperman teaches at Colorado State University. He lives in Fort Collins with his wife, the poet Aby Kaupang, and their two children. More information can be found at www.matthewcooperman.com.

120 pages, Paperback

Published December 23, 2015

About the author

Matthew Cooperman is the author of, most recently, NOS (disorder, not otherwise specified), w/Aby Kaupang (Futurepoem, 2018) as well as Spool, winner of the New Measure Prize (Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press, 2016), the text + image collaboration Imago for the Fallen World, w/Marius Lehene (Jaded Ibis Press, 2013), Still: of the Earth as the Ark which Does Not Move (Counterpath Press, 2011), DaZE (Salt Publishing Ltd, 2006) and A Sacrificial Zinc (Pleiades/LSU, 2001), winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize. Five chapbooks exist in addition, including Little Spool, winner of the 2014 Pavement Saw Chapbook Prize, and Disorder 299.00 (Essay Press).

A former Fine Arts Work Center fellow in Provincetown, Cooperman was a founding editor of Quarter After Eight. He is currently a poetry editor at Colorado Review and teaches at Colorado State University. He lives in Fort Collins, CO with his wife, the poet Aby Kaupang, and their two children.

Reviews

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say I didn’t enjoy this very much. I didn’t like the 3 word lines because it made reading it very choppy and I couldn’t find a good rhythm. This in turn distracted me from making meaning. Honestly, I think most of it went straight over my head. It felt like a near meaningless stream of consciousness half of the time, although I recognize there was a lot of thought in sounds and word play. It certainly references lots of other works and has fun exploring the kinds of conversations you can have though the poetry. Most of that was lost on me though. There were, however, a good collection of wonderful lines, which is what bumped my score up to 3 stars. I think you have to be really immersed in the world of poetry and literature for this to be a fun read, and as much time as I spend reading, I don’t think I fit into that requirement.