Atmosphere Conditions

by Ed Roberson

A winner of the 1998 National Poetry Series competition, selected by Nathaniel Mackey.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Charles Edwin (Ed) Roberson is a distinguished American poet, celebrated for his unique diction and intricacy in exploring the natural and cultural worlds. His poetic voice is informed by a background in science and visual art, coupled with his identity as an African American. Roberson has been an active poet since the early 1960s and has authored eight collections, including "Atmosphere Conditions" (1999) and "City Eclogue" (2006). Among his many honors are the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award (1998) and the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award (2008).

Reviews

[S P]

from 'Atmosphere Conditions' (p8-11)

The lightning sigh of decomposition
over some settlement of the grave blows
that figure of atmosphere we named ghost,

[...]

Graffiti appears only on what
is disappearing marking the going out

[...]

Your wishes are just atmosphere conditions
Greeks called them meteors men made predictions
at the sight on weather Things in the air

[...]

a black hole

some speak of as astronomical
but you know as maybe your next breath
against air's wall of mirror without image

which itself is a mark a meteor
of absence
...

**

from 'Bird Population Up On Black Mountain' (p33)

To lie warm in bed listening beside someone
who likes your work and wants you to
bring more home for around the house,
this if sound tune of my doing
my fingers
stiff is all but extinct
as if I'd dropped
something a clay pot the last
ancestor jug flute,
carved in the base this unknown bird
of my own breath

**

from 'I Remember Form' (p67)

The Osiris Addendum

I remember the shock
of remembering
that I am
still that who
remembering
re-member