WINNER of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets
& FINALIST for the 2013 National Book Award
Available from
praise for
Matt Rasmussen
“The book … is remarkable, one of the best of 2013.
— Kathleen Rooney, Poetry Foundation
“Where did this strange, sad, gorgeous book come from?
— Craig Teicher, NPR
“By infusing pastoral images reminiscent of Wright with his own strange iconography of grief, Rasmussen creates a style distinctly his own.
— Elizabeth Hoover, Star Tribune
“Certain poets have the ability to create poems of Euclidean clarity. Rasmussen is one such poet. His images make me feel as though I’ve lived for years in the span of a moment. His lapidary poems seem more real than the chair I am sitting on or the room that holds me aloft in space as I type this.
— Ben Mirov
“The liberations of tongue, word, and conception held in these poems restore the possibility-sense that’s as essential to us as oxygen, when a person stands in the chambers of unacceptable loss.
— Jane Hirshfield
“With this book, [Matt] brilliantly conveys how the echo of death crowds us toward our most important questions, one after another, and Rasmussen bravely faces each of them without succumbing to answer. Instead, the poems quake with light.
— Chris Martin