Formation

by Matt Bialer

In June 1947, Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a strange, disc-like object in the sky. His sighting received nationwide publicity, became a cause celebre, and in what might, or might not, have been mass hysteria, hundreds more reports of such phenomena quickly followed. This was the birth of the flying-saucer age. Poet of the extraordinary Matt Bialer, who has long been fascinated by accounts of the weird and unusual, here turns his attention to what followed Arnold's sighting, the public fear, the military paranoia and the attempts to establish just what Arnold and others had seen. As always with Bialer's long poems, Formation is a gripping and mesmerizing read that takes us on a helter-skelter ride into the realms of the unexplained.
Matt Bialer is the author of eleven previous books of poetry including Radius and Wing of Light (Les Editions du Zaporogue), Already Here, Ark, Black Powder, (Black Coffee Press), Bridge and Frequencies (Leaky Boot Press), Tell Them What I Saw (PS Publishing), He Walks On All Fours and Kings of Men (Dynatox Ministries) and Ascent (Bizarro Pulp Press). His poems have appeared in many print and online journals including Le Zaporogue, Green Mountains Review, Gobbet, Forklift Ohio and H_NGM_N. He is an acclaimed black and white street photographer and watercolorist who has exhibited widely Matt lives with his wife and daughter in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2016

About the author

Matt Bialer is the author of eight books of poetry including Radius (Les Editions du Zaporogue), Already Here, Ark, Black Powder, (all from Black Coffee Press) Bridge (Leaky Boot Press) ,Tell Them What I Saw (PS Publishing, UK) He Walks On All Fours (Dynatox Ministries) and Ascent (Bizarro Pulp Press). His poems have appeared in many print and online journals including La Zaporogue, Green Mountains Review, Gobbet, Forklift Ohio, Cultural Weekly and H_NGM_N. He is also an acclaimed black and white street photographer and watercolorist who has exhibited widely. Some of his photographs are in the permanent collections of The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of the City of New York and the The New York Public Library and his watercolors are in many private collections. His photographic monograph, More Than You Know, was published in 2011 by Les Editions du Zaporogue and Shadowbrook, a book of his paintings was issued by the same publisher in 2012. Matt lives with his wife Lenora Lapidus and daughter Izzy in Park Slope, Brooklyn. His website is www.mattbialer.com

Reviews

[Stuart Greenhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, good handling of myth/history surrounding UFO lore, fun. I did like the repetitive patterning in general, but by the second half I'd had my fill of the unvarying lines constantly brought back. Seemed more than necessary, to my ear, without some change along the way in them. Still, cool topic, cool book.