There's a Box in the Garage You Can Beat With a Stick (American Poets Continuum) - Softcover

Teig, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1938160207 ISBN 13: 9781938160202

Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd., 2013

Synopsis

Michael Teig's poems are moving, intelligent, full of delight, and—most refreshingly—a pleasure to read. Stephen Dobyns says of Teig's poems, "they have this ability to make the world fresh again and make us realize why we love the world, despite its failings and our own."

When they gave him a shovel
he repaired the ground.

When they addressed him in memos
he said I am lonely too.

He gave them a shrug
and held

a gray cat to his chest
like an alibi.

Michael Teig is founding co-editor of jubilat. He won the inaugural A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Teig is the author of Big Back Yard (BOA Editions, 2003), winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in many journals, including FIELD, Conduit, Black Warrior Review, Bateau, Crazyhorse, Pleiades, and A Public Space. He is a co-founder and editor-at-large of jubilat. Born in Franklin, PA, Teig holds degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His honors include awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Academy of American Poets, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. He lives in Easthampton, MA, with his wife and son.

Reviews

Teig’s (Big Back Yard, 2003) second book of poems has one of the boldest titles in ­poetry-book history, and he follows his standout title with highly imaginative poems boasting imagery with passionate reach. Nearly every poem in this collection can be viewed as a picturesque mural that doesn’t quite make sense, yet, curiously, leads to wonder and excitement. Brimming with wit, Teig’s poems traverse a breadth of subject matter: When they gave him a shovel / he repaired the ground. / When they addressed him in memos / he said I am lonely too. / He gave them a shrug / and held / a gray cat to his chest / like an alibi. They are bizarre, twisted even, and, yet, in some strange fashion, plain and straightforward: My chicken has pointy ears / like a forest and Hear that? That’s / our lawn dying. It is quite possible that Teig has inherited the mantle of William Carlos Williams’ Red Wheelbarrow. But there is nothing here that is definitive, and that is the point. --Mark Eleveld

Edition details

• Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1938160207
• ISBN 13: 9781938160202
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 136