{"title":"Michael Blumenthal","description":"Michael Blumenthal is the author of eight collections of poetry including two from BOA Editions, \u003cem\u003eDusty Angel\u003c\/em\u003e (1999), and \u003cem\u003eAnd\u003c\/em\u003e (2009). Formerly the Director of Creative Writing at Harvard, he is also an essayist and novelist. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Law at the West Virginia University College of Law, where he has taught since 2009. For more information about Michael Blumenthal, visit \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.michael-blumenthal.com\/\"\u003ewww.michael-blumenthal.com\u003c\/a\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"dusty-angel","title":"Dusty Angel","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe winner of the 1999 Isabella Gardner Award for Poetry, \u003cem\u003eDusty Angel \u003c\/em\u003eis the work of a poet who has been called one of the most talented of his generation. Blumenthal's themes of love, lust, longing and loss resonate throughout this collection in poems that are as remarkable for their keen social and personal observations as for their beautifully crafted language. His subject matter ranges from the fairly sensual \"Having My Way With You\" to the somber, heartfelt \"The Real,\" written for a friend mourning the loss of his wife. With perfect pitch, Blumenthal can sing in any key.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Mouth\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhat can the mouth do that nothing else can do?\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBirds frolic and sing in the trees. \u003cbr\u003eSnakes hiss in the grass. \u003cbr\u003eIf a man's mouth is not blessed, \u003cbr\u003ehe will never learn to sing, he will never \u003cbr\u003echant in a perfect breeze, in summer, \u003cbr\u003ewith someone with whom love is impossible\u003cbr\u003eand, therefore, beautiful and tender. \u003cbr\u003eWhat can the mouth do? What can it say? \u003cbr\u003eAcrobatic in the afternoons, it grows speechless\u003cbr\u003eand terrible, and doesn't know its own home:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhat shall we say of the mouth?\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIt travels brightly over the parks, \u003cbr\u003eit dances and frets, it covers \u003cbr\u003ethe faces of those we might have loved \u003cbr\u003eon wet, lustful afternoons, it sings \u003cbr\u003ethe happy-sad song of the tongue\u003cbr\u003eand why shouldn't it? Kisses, too, \u003cbr\u003efly from the mouth. Mine \u003cbr\u003ehave flown, eagerly, to you. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhat can the mouth do?\u003c\/em\u003e you ask \u003cbr\u003eLet me tell you: the mouth \u003cbr\u003ecan deliver a kiss, \u003cbr\u003ethe mouth can learn to say good-bye.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":null,"offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":9802131205,"sku":"1-880238-81-0","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cloth","offer_id":8418328837,"sku":"1-880238-80-2","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/DUSTY_ANGEL.jpg?v=1527683214"},{"product_id":"and","title":"And","description":"\u003cp\u003eThrough Michael Blumenthal’s eyes we gain a renewed, childlike wonder at everything from plants, trees, and relationships, to the most fundamental word in our vocabulary: AND. Blumenthal uses the conjunction—AND—to unify this new collection and to create an incantatory, sonorous rhythm to his work. The result is a book of poems-as-hymns-and-praises.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eAnd The Small, Cantilevered Emblems of The Hills May Be in Vain\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStillness has its own ethos: a bird, terrified, on \u003cbr\u003eits branch, does not tell jokes. But the human world   \u003cbr\u003eis filled with farts and cat-calls, with the bombast\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eof too many syllables uttered in vain, and how   \u003cbr\u003eshall we demonstrate to the hills that we are serious   \u003cbr\u003ein our self-importance, that we have been singing,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eall these years, for the mere pleasure of listening   \u003cbr\u003eto our own voices? Slowly the river runs   \u003cbr\u003ebetween the beeches and oaks, the willow quivers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ein the slightest of winds, and everywhere we look   \u003cbr\u003esomething is beseeching us: silence silence   \u003cbr\u003eamid the deep, dismissive susurrus of the trees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003ePraise for the collection\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Few new books of American poems have more unity—or more happiness—than the latest from Blumenthal: the law professor, memoirist, novelist (\u003cem\u003eDusty Angel\u003c\/em\u003e) and psychotherapist has set himself the daunting task of depicting joy in all its varieties.” \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Not since T.S. Eliot's \u003cem\u003eFour Quartets\u003c\/em\u003e has an American poet been able to combine so seamlessly the quest of the visionary with the beatific reality of a fallen yet redeemed humanity. These ambitious poems promise to unlock the spiritual potential of each and every modern reader. As such, they deserve to be read and read again.” —\u003cem\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Montserrat Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Blumenthal's new collection of poems, titled \u003cem\u003eAnd\u003c\/em\u003e, is the closest that the stoicism of Ecclesiastes will come to getting a 21st-century makeover. In it, there's a time to laugh and cry, scatter stones and gather them up, and all the rest.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003cem\u003eThe Jewish Daily Forward\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2009\u003c\/h6\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":8419982021,"sku":"9781934414217","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback (Signed)","offer_id":12462817050705,"sku":"9781934414218","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/AND.jpg?v=1527683169"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/collections\/Michael-Blumenthal-NewBioImage_b6ffbb14-0290-47fd-8fd6-359010a700a5.png?v=1453995085","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/collections\/michael-blumenthal.oembed","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}