Pulver Maar

by Zachary Schomburg

In Zachary Schomburg’s own words, Pulver Maar is “is a collection of poems written between 2014 and 2018. Some of the poems are long, and some of them are short.” These are every bit the poems you’ve come to dream of, long for, and expect from Schomburg, where clouds fall in love and Bob the Buoy bobs in the center of the sea. They are playful but not all play; they carry a humanity and an acute awareness of what it is to try to make a life, whether you’re a mountain or dust or just a human.

Genres: Poetry

224 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2019

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grand collection of various experiments, alternately weird and child-like, personal and mysterious, and clever and language-y. I'm constantly impressed by Schomburg's talents, in the written realm and in his visual art (love his collages!). There is only one Zachary Schomburg and he is a world of wonder and strange beauty.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m team Schomburg and a huge fan of his irony and absurdist ability to pen such things that craves an imaginative approach of such simple thoughts, what can be pushed through the water with an oar in hand, or maybe a speck of dust hovering in the gravitational pull, his style is poetry that defies logic, but an imaginatively crafted pleasure.

Favorites:
-Peach Who Thinks
-Shu Fang and the Botfly
-Wanda One Arm
-Better Business Bureau
-More About Gravity
-It Is a Low Life
-Solar Eclipse over Mt. Kinangop
-Congrats on your New Job
-Terra Incognita
Oars entire section RECOMMENDED!

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite on par with Mammother, which I absolutely adored, though wholly unique and absurdly crafted. Broken out into chapbook length sections, I was most drawn to the storylike poems that were contained within Now is a Good Time, and the disconnected but appealing poetry of Oars. Those collected in the section titledHaircut and The Future/The Baby seemed to draw from the storylike format of Good Time while blending the chaos of language from Oars and also drew me in with their mysterious cadence. The parts that were good were really good, and those sections that I failed to name fell incredibly flat and missed their mark completely.

[Carolyn DeCarlo · Rating 5 out of 5]

To all the die-hard fans of Zachary Schomburg: this is the content we have been waiting for! If, like me, you have been sitting by the phone since 2014 (The Book of Joshua), your call has finally been answered. The resulting nearly 250 page "mammoth" (har har) poetry collection is an absolute delight, catering to readers of Schomburg's earlier work and new readers alike, despite its significant girth for a book of poems. In fact, it has been broken down into smaller bite-sized (i.e. chapbook-length) sections within the text, to ease one's digestion.

As usual with Schomburg, he's playing with weird fire in the creation and repetition of these poems. Get ready to engage with some abstract thinking this April; these poems are bizarre, moody, unfussy, and fast-paced. The emotional impact is unexpected – consistently lurking below the surface, as in Scary, No Scary. Many of the poems feel repetitive or even nostalgic, but this is Schomburg's way. (Recall the marvelous index at the back of Scary, No Scary.)

Please do also tune into The Lit Pub (thelitpub.com) closer to Pulver Maar's release date for a different style of review from me, Carolyn DeCarlo.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chopped into tiny sections that feel like their own microbooks, Schomburg's Pulver Maar is a beast of a thing. Dense and magical, the first read-through felt like flipping channels in a different dimension where the television is stuffed with static and an unidentifiable slime drips down to rest (somewhat innocently and comfortably) at your feet. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and read each poem again. Twice.

Here's a personal favorite from the expansive collection: https://twitter.com/neonpajamas/statu...

[Matt McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

The long poems "Oars" and "Haircuts" at the center of the book are staggering.

[Matthew Hinea · Rating 5 out of 5]

good stuff!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never before noticed Zachary Schomburg's debt to Gertrude Stein. Now I feel silly for missing it.
An excellent collection. I am fortunate enough to have a husband who was willing to read passages aloud to me.