{"product_id":"rumor-elizabeth-robinson-9781602351530","title":"Rumor","description":"\u003cp\u003eRobinson's ambition in \u003cem\u003eRumor \u003c\/em\u003e is enormous--to understand the problem of violence, to understand how power subjugates bodies and souls and turns them to use. In the world these poems inhabit, language itself is a violent power tool, a buzzsaw, precise, ruthless, and often wrong. Yet language's instability allows Robinson to turn it on itself to question categories such as gender. Through brooding, bloody, clearwater analysis, through delicate, brutally uncertain self-questioning, Robinson's poems create a frictive warmth that's not comfortable, but rousing. --Catherine Wagner\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eElizabeth Robinson has long been probing the interplay of the personal with the abstract or, as she has put it, \"the brick floor from which the\/ kingdom of God extends\/ or could extend.\" In \u003cem\u003eRumor\u003c\/em\u003e, the poet-victim (whom \"grief evicts\" from herself) tries to take on the persona of perpetrator as if it were a sanctuary from which to explore and understand the violence: \"she lies a divided pronoun \/. . . \/ knife slicing through softened self\/. . . \/ She\/ crouches over\/ herself, a difficult\/ situation.\" The poems worry at boundaries between subject\/object, male\/female\/ transgender, but most of all between \"abstract\" violence and the physical (\"the teacher\/ flayed by removal from\/ the student\"). This process of incarnation, of word made flesh is frightening, nauseating, but must be faced: \"we cough up words made of flesh\/ and eat them anew.\" Here \"I myself\/ had no face, but took\/ to smiling\" and \"wrapped my hand around my incomprehension.\" \u003cem\u003eRumor\u003c\/em\u003e is fascinating, daunting, complex. Its exploration remains open, does not pretend to find answers, but instead offers memorable words: \"How firmly the answer closes its eyes.\" --Rosmarie Waldrop\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eELIZABETH ROBINSON is the author of multiple collections of poetry, including the National Poetry Series winner, \u003cem\u003ePure Descent\u003c\/em\u003e, and the Fence Modern Poets Prize winner, \u003cem\u003eApprehend\u003c\/em\u003e. Her poetry has appeared in such anthologies as \u003cem\u003eAmerican Hybrid\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Best American Poetry of 2002\u003c\/em\u003e. She works as the homeless navigator for Boulder Municipal Court and teaches at Lighthouse Writers' Workshop.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Elizabeth Robinson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1602351538\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781602351530\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Parlor Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/19\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 86\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.21d","brand":"Elizabeth Robinson","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43984521920767,"sku":"9781602351530","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_61317561-b9ea-48e3-896c-b6e01a018676.jpg?v=1683272787","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/rumor-elizabeth-robinson-9781602351530","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}