GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE 2005International Shortlist Book: A Green Light
Poet: Matthew Rohrer
Publisher: Verse Press Click the book cover or title to purchase A Green Light online. Read an excerpt from A Green Light. Enjoy audio and video clips of Matthew Rohrer reading from A Green Light. Biography  Matthew Rohrer’s most recently published work is A Green Light (2004) the book for which he has been named to the International shortlist for this year’s Griffin Poetry Prize. He is the author of A Hummock in the Malookas (1994) the winner of the National Poetry Series, and Satellite (2001), Nice Hat. Thanks. (2002, with Joshua Beckman), and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (2003, also with Joshua Beckman). Rohrer has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered - The Book Show, and his poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies and have been translated into Slovenian, Finnish and Portuguese. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and raised in Oklahoma, Rohrer won a Hopwood Award for Poetry and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Poetry while at the University of Iowa. Presently living in Brooklyn, New York, Rohrer is the Poetry Editor for Fence. See also: Matthew Rohrer, 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlisted Poet, Opens the 2007 Awards Ceremony Judges’ Citation “With jumpy verve, Rohrer’s green-lit poems lay bare an anxiety of influence, social and linguistic, and present us the sideways view of the world of a young American not able to assume the mantle of hero, not able to be “the adorable boy”. In the midst of what could be, in other hands, wreckage or hopelessness, Rohrer’s poems run up the banner of hopefulness, create complete poems out of incomplete thoughts. Rohrer has an enchanting willingness to look outward, a willingness not to grasp the world using old means which have failed us, even if no new means present themselves ready-made – no wonder jumpiness is in our very condition. There is, too, a current of sadness that his lines and words buck even as they convey; yet the grief they carry does not bear us downward. This is a book with an edge, a book of brash clamour and hard-earned joy.” THE ADORABLE LITTLE BOY | Today my ski boots disintegrated on my feet.
It is getting more difficult to play
the role of The Adorable Little Boy
now, and I will confirm what most of you
have suspected: I am ill,
I have the distinct sensation that my head
is donut-shaped. But don't let that
stop me from wriggling my way
into your hearts, those of you
who are not empty blue suits.
I am still very aware, I am hyper-aware.
A beautiful ass makes me sneeze and cough!
But now I suspect you are looking for something
and here it is: Pliny described trees that speak. From A Green Light, by Matthew Rohrer
Copyright © 2004 |
Back to top More about Matthew Rohrer The following are links to other Web sites with information about poet Matthew Rohrer. (Note: All links to external Web sites open in a new browser window.) Have you read A Green Light, by Matthew Rohrer? Click here to send us your comments. Back to top Photo credit: Susan McCullough |
