{"product_id":"the-trembling-answers","title":"The Trembling Answers","description":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2018 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt once an extension of and a departure from his previous explorations of family and art, Craig Morgan Teicher’s \u003cem\u003eThe Trembling Answers\u003c\/em\u003e delves boldly into the tangled realms of fatherhood, marriage, and poetry. Dealing with the day-to-day of family life—including the alert anxiety and remarkable beauty of caring for a child with severe cerebral palsy—these personal narratives brightly illuminate the relationship that exists between poetry and a life fiercely lived.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eThe Hairdryer Cord Is All Tangled\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYou’ve stepped out of the shower,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edragged the towel up and down\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eyour clean little self. Now\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eyou’ve got to dry your hair, and quick.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eExcept there’s this tangle. A clogged\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eartery? But nothing prevents you from\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eplugging it in—why won’t you? \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDoes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003esomebody love us all? Undo it,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eor else who will, and when?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA time machine and God’s eyes-that’s what\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eyou need. Does no one feel\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethe tectonic plates, magma, glaciers sliding?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou do, who’ve been anticipating death\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003esince you were four. Your hair is still \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eso wet. Stop thinking! Your face\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewill stay that way like Gramma warned.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYou’ll catch your own swift undoing.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eUntangle the cord, or the knots\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewill keep seething like a cracked oil pipe\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003esnaking along the ocean floor.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThis may be your one chance to stop\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ethe fateful flap of the butterfly’s wings.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCities are shaking, sinking, singing.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe Earth is burning! Quick, untangle it!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eThe Trembling Answers\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eTeicher’s poems are largely confessional and autobiographical, and \u003cem\u003eThe Trembling Answers \u003c\/em\u003eis no exception; this particular volume deals with explorations of family and fatherhood, and the role his poetry plays across each. One of Teicher’s great strengths is his honesty. He frequently reveals his flaws and mistakes to the reader, laying bare intimate details about his wife, his son, and his marriage to illustrate his humanity. His writing is full of lists and repetition, as if Teicher is searching for answers in real-time. Each poem is meaty and sprawling, providing plenty of space for interpretation and re-interpretation.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003cem\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“An affecting examination of the trade-offs that parenthood, adulthood, and art require. This is a modest book, but also a rare, undeceived one. It offers only what it can, which may be all that poetry can hope to: small joys and hard-won wisdom.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/files\/reviews-star-19b_large.png?v=1491516015\" alt=\"\" width=\"22\" height=\"17\"\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eProlific reviewer, Colorado Prize winner, and director of digital operations at \u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e, Teicher writes affectingly about family relations and the particular burdens and beauties of raising a disabled child. This is poetry, in other words, about how life really feels: \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003eNight is long, life short. \/ I cover you with my eyes.\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Barbara Hoffert, \u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eCraig Morgan Teicher\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es \u003cem\u003eThe Trembling Answers\u003c\/em\u003e, an \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003eultra-vivid \/ catalog of things \/ undone, hopes \/\/ unfulfilled, opportunities unnoticed so \/ untaken,\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e is a portrait not only of the speaker (who is handsome, he claims in one of his many wry unvarnished self-assessments, as long as he avoids the mirror) but of any human being who refuses to delude himself as life\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es options narrow and love deepens, sharpens, extracts its beautiful dues from us. Humor and fearlessness pulse through these poems. Teicher\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es so-called \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003eanswers\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e are complicated by anxiety, excitement, and the drive to know in these poems of resilience, joy, lament, and the existential dread of the \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003elooming erotic.\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e Time seems to run backwards even as it moves relentlessly forward. Teicher’s speakers are like those figures whose faces are half-smiling, half-crying, mordantly aware of their own beautiful failings and contradictions. Part confession, part manifesto, part x-ray, this is a beautiful mea culpa, an I was here that invites its readers to take up their own unanswerables.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Catherine Barnett\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eCraig Morgan Teicher\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es \u003cem\u003eThe Trembling Answers\u003c\/em\u003e is feverish, big, loving, and tender. In this book we find tireless children, tired parents, everyday chores, and wild imagination. This poet is in love with poetry and so we can trust him to deliver. This book is a stunner unlike anything else I have encountered. Read it and weep.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Peter Gizzi\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eIn these poems, Teicher creates a character, call him Craig Morgan Teicher, who you feel you know and believe.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Hannah Brooks-Motl, \u003cem\u003eBookforum\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eWith these refreshingly human, formal, playful, and heart-wrenching poems, Teicher not only proves that form may be adapted to fit a contemporary idiom, but that he\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es built his own \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003eLife Studies\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e within the confessional tradition, one which pushes against his predecessor\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es self-aware and often selfish use of confession, successfully re-enervating the sense of a real life behind the voice.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Maya Catherine Popa, \u003cem\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eI recommend Craig Morgan Teicher\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es new poetry collection, \u003cem\u003eThe Trembling Answers\u003c\/em\u003e, a book of enormous beauty and revelation and hanging questions.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Natalie Shapiro, \u003ci\u003eKenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003ePublication Date: April 11, 2017\u003cbr\u003eISBN: \u003cstrong\u003e978-1-942683-31-5\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2017\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":26036399561,"sku":"9781942683315","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/TheTremblingAnswers_Front_PrizeSeal-min.jpg?v=1538569687","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/the-trembling-answers","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}