With his fifth collection of poems, Michael Earl Craig delivers a fresh set of tableaux that have us squinting aslant at the ordinary. Dexterously constructed, the scenes, conversations, letters, instructions, stories, bios, and little fables of Woods and Clouds Interchangeable twist the comedic into shapes of startling seriousness, making us laugh at the same time they widen the dimensions of the world we live in.
Table of Contents:
WHO WAS MRS. BUTTERWORTH 11
ELOISE 12
THE RABBIT 13
HOW TO FIX A BROKEN BUTTERFLY WING 14
WHO WAS VERONICA 15
TOWN 16
YOU SHOULD BE HEARING THE SOUND THAT A MARBLE MAKES 17 DIMES 18
WHO WAS PONTIUS PILATE 19
THE QUALITY OF LIGHT 20
JOCELYN 22
FROM BED 23
WHO WAS KING FRIDAY 24
COLOSSEUM 25
THE PROBLEM 26
CHUNK OF SEA GLASS 27
WHO WAS THE SUN 28
THE COUPLE 29
GIANT HOTEL FERN 30
DON CHEADLE POEM 31
WHO WAS CATULLUS 32
AT THE PARTY 33
THIS LOOKS RUSSIAN TO ME 34
WHAT BUGGED ME WAS 35
WHO WAS FRANZ LISZT 36
SOME TEA HAS EVAPORATED HERE 37
YOUR PAINTING 38
THE TURIN HORSE 40
WHO WAS SIMONE WEIL 41
BILLINGS CLINIC ROOM 2508 42
IDEAS FOR A MOSTLY SILENT FILM IN 3 FIFTEEN-MINUTE SCENES 43 GENTLY TAPPING RAVIOLIS IN A POT OF BOILING WATER 44
WHO WAS MAN O’ WAR 45
FINDINGS 46
ICE, SALAD, GLOVES 47
NATALIA 48
WHO WAS FRÄULEIN UNBEKANNT 49
THE CHANGE 50
ROSE TANTRUM 51
THANKSGIVING 52
WHO WAS HEIRONYMOUS BOSCH 53
NPR 54
THE BRANCHES OF CLOWNS 55
MARYLAND 56
WHO WAS CHIEF PLENTY COUPS 57
THE SIGNAL 58
28 APRIL 2016 59
I’M IN ROOM 927 60
WHO WAS JOAN OF ARC 62
LADY CHAMBLESS’S YARD 63
THE DEAD ELEPHANT 64
THE DROP-KICK 66
WHO WAS LU YOU 67
THE FAIR 68
HOW I SPENT THE AFTERNOON 69 CURRENTLY OVER KANSAS 70
WHO WAS SIR ERNEST HENRY SHACKLETON 71 TWO PEOPLE 72
HOTEL FINLEN 73
HEIMLICH’S BEAGLES 74
WHO WAS DEEP BLUE 75
I HAVE STUFFED MYSELF AT DINNER 76
THE BODY BUILDER 77
CHRISTMAS 78
WHO WAS GENGHIS KHAN 79
LAWS OF NATURE 80
BRISKLY JERKED RUGS 81
About the Author :
Michael Earl Craig is from Dayton, Ohio, home of the gas mask and the mood ring. He is the author of Woods and Clouds Interchangeable (Wave Books, forthcoming 2019), Talkativeness (Wave Books, 2014), Thin Kimono (Wave Books, 2010), Yes, Master (Fence Books, 2006), Can You Relax in My House, (Fence Books, 2002), and the chapbook Jombang Jet (Factory Hollow Press, 2012). He lives in the Shields Valley, near Livingston, Montana, where he runs a full-time farrier practice. He was the 2015-2017 Poet Laureate of Montana.
Review :
"Craig renders unsettling dreams and quotidian clutter with sparse language and a quiet, distant voice to conjure poems brimming with the bizarre."--Publishers Weekly
"Quite possibly the funniest poet writing today, Craig's unadorned poetry tends toward the deadpan and the offbeat, with an almost David Lynch-like sense of the uncanny."--The Believer
"Craig animates a world we secretly share, and the tension and kilter of his poems reflect 'dreamish autobiographical thoughts' with great poise."--Lia Purpura, The Antioch Review
"I like being in the world of Michael Craig's poems. Anything can happen, and probably will, and it will affect me in some small or large ways that I couldn't have imagined. The precision of their imagery keeps me reeling with delight."--James Tate
