{"product_id":"the-strange-god-who-makes-us","title":"The Strange God Who Makes Us","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of memory, mourning, and humanity’s precarious relationship to the Anthropocene,\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Christopher Kennedy’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe Strange God Who Makes Us \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edocuments our fragile relationship with time and the imperfect ways in which we document our lives. These prose poems written by one of the form’s masters, serve both as attempts to preserve and honor the past and as a call to action to ensure an inhabitable planet for future generations.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Strange God Who Makes Us\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI haven’t read a book of prose poems in a long time that I would call a ‘classic,’ but \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Strange God Who Makes Us\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e certainly deserves that praise. It’s a book only a master of the genre could write.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Peter Johnson, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhile the Undertaker Sleeps: Collected and New Prose Poems\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In this deft and wildly sophisticated new collection, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Strange God Who Makes Us\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the poet notes, of the dead commenting about the living, ‘they are touched by\/the ghosts of every hand that ever held them’ —an observation, it seems, one might apply to the author himself, or rather his exquisitely attuned memory. Whether addressing Watkins Glen or Shang Qin, rocket ships or ‘the beautiful woman with the towering beehive,’ always there is the shivering presence of the future that ‘kept peeking around the corner to see if I was ready,’ offering grace and perspective. What more can one ask?” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Daniel Lawless, Founding Editor,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlume\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Strange God Who Makes Us\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSomething in the mother’s shrunken, sea-urchin face as she guided her husband’s\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewheelchair along morning rush hour traffic said their lives were worth living, a\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003esteadiness in the gaze, as if a distant sea roared from beyond the dull, uneven\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003epavement, an ocean where they could simply merge with whatever world could\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emaintain them better than this one with its seedy laundromats and discount\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003egroceries.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe satisfied look on the boy’s ash-colored face as he rode his father’s narrow\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003elap was as hopeful as the way he tipped his extended arms first right, then left,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ein imitation of the plane that moved slowly across the impenetrable sky.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSun gleamed off the diamond patterns of the silver footrests, and one stray\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewheel, the left front, kept circling inward, pulling the chair toward the curb—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethe clacking of the wheel like the snapping of small bones.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe stricken father had hands, limp as two dead gulls, that threatened to\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ecatch in the rusty spokes but never did, his face honed down to a neo-classical\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eexpression: angular, extreme, polished, and hardened like red marble, mythical,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eas the Greeks might have looked when they imagined tragedy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44444390818021,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/files\/TheStrangeGodWhoMakesUs_7x9_CVR_SM.jpg?v=1701374902","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/the-strange-god-who-makes-us","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}