Bird Silence

Bird Silence Book Description: The poems in Matthew Roth's Bird Silence crackle with formal and imaginative energy. Roth explores topics as various as the death of a flock of Bohemian Waxwings, the etymology of the word "hearse," and the inner life of a mortician's instruments. In poems that marry the strange and the beautiful, Roth explores our desire for connection and consolation.

"In Matthew Roth's dazzling debut volume, Bird Silence, we find ourselves stepping into a darkly lunar otherworld that would break our hearts completely if not for the unlikely mercies of the strange. If the poems here ask us to remove our hands, it is only to be feathered like birds, to be made both vulnerable and untouchable in one brave affirmation of the redemptive power of song. More than merely audacious, these verses deploy their explorations of the weirdly human and humanizing with an exactness of phrasing, a suppleness of voice, a spirited humor, and a quietude of meditative strength. Such is the maturity here, the gift, the unwavering display of vision and taste. If silence could sing, this would be her hymnal." --Bruce Bond