The Interrogation: Poems

by Michael Bazzett

Who? A speaker at once questioner and questioned. An artist who embraces and resists what his work demands of him. "A naked / man in a crowd." What? Poems at once surreal and vulnerable, refusing to hide their uncomfortable truths behind their wildest imaginings. Where? In the mind, where "Nobody fails at meditation / like I do." Outside dreamlike cities. In the rich earth under a simple mattress. In new, disorienting fables and seemingly familiar folktales. When? As a child, spurning his mother. As a young man, seeking wisdom and peace. And as an older man, looking back at what he once was.

Suffused in psychology, uncertainty, and desire, Michael Bazzett's The Interrogation is a darkly humorous and unsparingly honest catechism of the self. Why? these poems ask. Why our cruelty? Why our loneliness? And how do we connect?

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2017

About the author

MICHAEL BAZZETT is the author of five books of poetry: You Must Remember This, (Winner of the 2014 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry); Our Lands Are Not So Different (Horsethief Books, 2017); The Interrogation (Milkweed Editions, 2017); The Temple (Bull City Press, 2020); and The Echo Chamber (Milkweed, 2021). His translation of the creation epic of the Maya, The Popol Vuh, (Milkweed, 2018) was named one of 2018's best books of poetry by the New York Times. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Ploughshares, The Sun, The American Poetry Review, Tin House, & The Iowa Review. A longtime faculty member at The Blake School, in Minneapolis, Bazzett has received the Bechtel Prize from Teachers & Writers Collaborative.

Reviews

[Jen Hamon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bough this on a whim after enjoying his poem in American Poetry Review. I wasn’t disappointed and plan to seek out the author’s other work now that I finished this collection. There were several pieces in here that have stuck with me. My favorite poem: On the One Hand.

[Sam Tornio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expect dreams of meat and mechanics:

“there is flesh
and hunger

everywhere
in the world”

[Mitchell McInnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bazzett is a tremendously talented poet with a gift for polyphony. This is a really good book, but it is also a transitional book, catching the author mid-transition from young turk to sure-footed journeyman. This transitional sense, along with his knack for polyphony, undercuts the foundational roots of this book. It's hard to inhabit, but still a good read. But not one of those poetry books you'll read again and again and again. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

[Chris Linehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

To Michael Bazzett

Overall I enjoyed your collection.
I noted ten in particular
on a piece of scratch paper
that I’m as likely to reread as the collection
I overall enjoyed.

To comment on or critique poetry
Gives me the heebie jeebies.

I hear my eloquent, erudite reflections
In my uncultured, Neanderthal mouth:
Me like this one,
Me no like that one.
Me don’t know why.

The geico guy looks as exasperated
As I do…

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

(need to review)

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's not for him go.say what's blessing, what's curse.
But the truth is I can keep a secret like a stone."