{"product_id":"improvisation-without-accompaniment","title":"Improvisation Without Accompaniment","description":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eWinner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWinner of the Philosophical Society of Texas Poetry Book Award\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSelected by Patricia Smith as winner of the 2018 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, Matt Morton’s debut poetry collection \u003ci\u003eImprovisation Without Accompaniment\u003c\/i\u003e embraces uncertainty with a spirit of joyous playfulness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese lyric poems follow the rhythms of life for a young man growing up in a small Texas town. As the speaker wrestles with ruptures within the nuclear family and the loss of his religious beliefs, he journeys toward a deeper self-awareness and discovers a fuller palette of experiences. Over the course of this collection, the changing seasons of small-town Texas life give way to surprise encounters in distant cities. The speaker’s awareness of mortality grows even as he improvises an affirming response to life’s toughest questions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePoignant, searching, and earnestly philosophical, \u003ci\u003eImprovisation Without Accompaniment \u003c\/i\u003ereaches for meaning within life’s joys and griefs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eExcerpt from \"\u003cb\u003eNot the Wind, Not the View\"\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo thousand miles away from here, my father\u003cbr\u003eis lying in a strange room, being tended to.\u003cbr\u003eIt is always getting later. No matter\u003cbr\u003eif morning is dampening the earth,\u003cbr\u003eor burnt orange evening rending itself apart,\u003cbr\u003ethe doldrums of afternoon stuck in between.\u003cbr\u003eThis morning, I was sifting through\u003cbr\u003ea famous nearly-dead novelist’s letters,\u003cbr\u003ewondering why he’d kept them all\u003cbr\u003eso neatly filed away. I wasn’t certain,\u003cbr\u003ebut I had an idea. An idea\u003cbr\u003ecannot fix a heart. It cannot douse\u003cbr\u003ea house on fire, which earlier I thought\u003cbr\u003emy neighbor’s was, but no, he was burning\u003cbr\u003ewood in his backyard. Right now, I’m heating\u003cbr\u003ea frozen dinner. In the studio next door\u003cbr\u003ea woman is singing, and a voice on the radio\u003cbr\u003eis trying to resuscitate itself beneath layers\u003cbr\u003eof static. I had an idea that each day seems\u003cbr\u003ethe same, yet somehow shorter.\u003cbr\u003eSlight variances in the weather,\u003cbr\u003erhythmic substitutions in the traffic’s pulse.\u003cbr\u003eI’m not sure what, but something\u003cbr\u003eis long overdue. Do you understand\u003cbr\u003ewhat it is I am saying? Somewhere\u003cbr\u003ein America my father is dying and I am\u003cbr\u003esitting here, listening to the radio.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003ePraise for Matt Morton\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Morton's poems are expert and instinctive, like a cool Ed Wilkerson sax solo bouncing with lived rhythms. Morton's consummate poems will echo long after they are read.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What follows are poems of arresting insight and stark assurance. What follows are the agile lines of someone who has mastered the sudden slap, the hushed lyric.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Patricia Smith,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003efrom the Foreword\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What stands in the back of Matt Morton’s beautiful and disturbing\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eImprovisation Without Accompaniment\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a persistent emotional attachment to literary and religious traditions in which the speaker of these poems intellectually disbelieves. Familial trauma and a foundering romance become occasions for a book-length compelling meditation on our particular moment in history, on the enduring value of person-to-person connection in a world whose ever-accelerating pace of change complicates and deepens the very needs it promises to satisfy.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Alan Shapiro, author of \u003cem\u003eAgainst Translation\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Matt Morton must not have gotten the memo that American poetry is in an extinction event. These are poems of immense intelligence and presence as nimble as flames conveying the nearly unbearable intimacy this life demands, threatens and rewards us with.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Dean Young, author of \u003cem\u003eSolar Perplexus\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date: April 7, 2020\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 978-1-942683-95-7\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003cspan\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2020\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31210036756561,"sku":"9781942683957","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/ImprovisationWithoutAccompaniment_CVR.jpg?v=1579695660","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/improvisation-without-accompaniment","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}