Black Postcards

by Michael McGriff

Poetry. About McGriff's BLACK POSTCARDS, poet John Witte writes "these poems transpire in moonlight, bending but not breaking. Rarely has a writer so thoroughly described the abrasion of his spirit. Childhood, the homeplace, even the lover's body are drawn relentlessly into a maelstrom of injury and loss. And yet the poet is paradoxically astonished by the beauty and grandeur of this damaging life. Verging on dream, McGriff's poems in BLACK POSTCARDS achieve an authentic rural American Surrealism."

30 pages, Paperback

Published March 30, 2017

About the author

A native of Oregon, poet Michael McGriff is the author of collections Choke and Dismantling The Hills (which won the 2007 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize), and his work has appeared in the publications Slate, Field, The Believer, and Poetry. He has also translated a number of works by Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, including The Sorrow Gondola. Receiving his MFA in creative writing from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, he is currently a lecturer at Stanford University.

Reviews

[amanda abel · Rating 5 out of 5]

More gorgeous offerings from one of my favorite poets, this time in a surrealist poetry chapbook. I wanted to share some favorite lines:

“Rat in the ditch of my heart gnawing / at a plastic bag”

“beyond the sheet ice / with its death-tongue crawling up / from the jeweled throat / of the river.”

“The moon gathers / evidence against us / and waits for its moment.”