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Open Books: Event Archive
November 02, 2006 07:30 PM
MATTHEW ZAPRUDER
In his new collection, The Pajamaist ($15 Copper Canyon), Mr. Zapruder's
poems are delightfully fluid, with subjects and objects seeming calmly
interchangeable. The self and the world become synonymous. "Who knows where
/ the sparrow falls? / All day that song, / the dead one's light / body
pushed along / the street in my head." Mr. Zapruder's descriptions are
lively and surprising, as in this expression of time passing -- "The day / a
gold city changing / very slightly the name / of its hospital." There is a
sweet, melancholic undercurrent to much of his poetry. The title poem is a
dreamed parable wherein it is discovered that all suffering may be passed to
one per son who willingly takes it on as a profession. In all good
melancholy, happiness is in view. "Ask yourself / what would I do if I knew
I could / not fail?" Look for a shifty reading this evening, shifty in a
good way.
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