{"product_id":"celestial-joyride","title":"Celestial Joyride","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn these poems of taut clarity, craft, and texture, Michael Waters continues his bold exploration of sensual pleasure and moral transgression as means of affirming spiritual faith. Just as a joyride suggests recklessness and exhilaration, so \u003cem\u003eCelestial Joyride\u003c\/em\u003e is an energized journey marked by spiritual recklessness in the face of perpetual mortality. Compelling, musical narratives offer rich meaning and vivid consequence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e “Dominoes\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWe set them up to flip them down, made them\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e  Fall with a flapping sound—whirr of an ace\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e     Slapped by circling spokes as the boy biked by,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e        Or the wound-up skirr of the hummingbird\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e     Jazzing like fire above honeysuckle.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e   It’s the long labor for such brief reward\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThat puzzles, though we arranged the thousand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e   Black caskets heliocentrically\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e      Until forefinger and thumb, pincer-like,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e        Locked up, mini-muscles cramped in a row,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e      Domino domino domino, so\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e   Begged to be crooked, dumb flexing Arnolds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Clack.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eI knelt with my father to watch death flow.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eCelestial Joyride\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eIt is difficult to imagine poetry could be more finely crafted and compelling than the work of Michael Waters, who has been quietly writing some of the best poetry in the United States for the past three decades.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Stephan Delbos, \u003cem\u003ePrague Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eIn lines that are often metrically formal—the decasyllabic line appears in many of [his poems]—there is often a quite wild range of emotion, from the overtly sexual to the politically conscious, the plaintively domestic to the brashly cosmopolitan. This is highly energized verse.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Michael Broek, \u003cem\u003ePoetry International\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eWaters seeks to capture the different kinds of negative space which interpenetrate American public life, history, and even the most intimate of moments \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003ebetween two bodies’—what he calls \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003ethe loneliness of two people \/ together.\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Jonathan Taylor, \u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eA significant American voice… testifies eloquently to the persistence of the lyric in a time and history that would seek to obliterate it.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—John Mann, \u003cem\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eWaters excels at stark-eyed, honest elegies… all rendered in the strong free verse that is [his] signature. He is a poet of detail, but also one of directness, pursuing strong feeling wherever it dives or climbs.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eWaters seeks and appropriates a rich, malleable language that allows him to express the subtleties of human emotion and the realities of the human condition… Michael Waters is perhaps the best poet of his generation.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Floyd Collins, \u003cem\u003eGettysburg Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2016\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #696969;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":8420426693,"sku":"9781942683063","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/CelestialJoyride_FinalFront_9bbc54b9-4159-46a6-a08c-8a4d225af6a2.jpg?v=1527683196","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/celestial-joyride","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}