The Arboretum Towards the Beginning

by Nathan Thompson

Nathan Thompson mixes process and poetics with a dry wit, to produce texts that hold the reader's hand through landscapes of the tangential (with occasional diversions back to the straight and narrow). This first collection juxtaposes prose poems with more traditional verse idioms, to create a whole that can be read either as a kind of disjunct musical narrative or as a collection of free-standing associative post-lyrics.

80 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Nathan Thompson is a writer from Chicago, IL USA. He is the publisher of The Bronzeville Press and authored "KINGS: The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers An Informal History".

Reviews

[Helen (Helena/Nell) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is contemporary poetry of the slightly more abstruse than usual for me variety. But there is something very lovely about it, especially in the lyrical phrasing and tender asides. Sometimes it reminds me of e e cummings, but it is not like e e cummings. Even when I don't understand what is going on, I find I trust the poet.