The poems in this collection represent what I consider my best up to now, and many of them have gone through a major transformation since the collection was accepted for publication. I have my wonderful editor Tom Lombardo to thank for helping guide this collection in a new (and I think better) direction.
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| Solving the World's Problems |
Anyway, this post shares a few sample poems from Solving the World's Problems.
solving the world's problems, by Robert Lee Brewer
i began as eyelashes blocking the sun
and my father was a digital clock
in a dark cave my father counted
out the minutes as i kept myself
from myself in this way i learned to kiss
years later when i became a horse
i ran the hot blood out of my body
father turned into a dream filled
with fire and a horrible laugh i
burned into a cloud of smoke
father became a phone call and then
silence i worried what i might
transform into next i worried
what i might already be then
i forgave father
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you origami me, by Robert Lee Brewer
fold me into animal shapes
and hold me like paper
you don't want to tear
i've been here before
i've waited like money
and spent myself evenly
across your accounts of love
the time has come for our withdrawal
into the pleasures of night
these simple transfers and deposits
these points of interest
fold me as you will
and hold me longer still
i'm not a wolf save when
that's the only way you'll bend me
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10:15 in a kroger parking lot, by Robert Lee Brewer
he sits with the engine off staring straight ahead
through wells fargo through the next strip mall and the new
half-developed subdivision with prices that
start in the low five-hundreds through mcdonald's and
chick-fil-a through burger king and dairy queen through
thick and thin cats and dogs teenagers in public
parks radio waves and satellite images
carried to you the possibility of you
a number on a graph some outlier who reads
poetry as if reading might even matter
to the man with this weight on his shoulders staring
without any thoughts because his brain's finally
filled past the point of pure saturation and he's
sitting in his car oblivious to the world
outside the store stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables
and diapers and frozen pizza and toothpaste and
deodorant and trash bags and prescription drugs
and his eyes are wet but he is not crying blank
as he feels and overwhelmed as choreographed
cars park and people enter the kroger and leave
the kroger to drive away somewhere without him
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As we run up to the release date for the collection, I'll be sharing more information, including various events--both online and in person. If you're interested in either having me read at your venue or doing some kind of interview or review, just send me an e-mail at robertleebrewer@gmail.com.
To get a signed copy, send me an e-mail as well, or click here to order a copy directly from Press 53.
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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer
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2 comments:
Really beautiful, all three of them.
Thanks, Ina!
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