Reasons to Leave the Slaughter

Clark's collection tells of the balance between our desperate human need to own a place and call it home, and nature's constant battling back with infestations, tornados, an animal's unforeseen death.

"...the sadness hibernating in my body, like a family of bears that will not survive the summer months."―from "Summer"

Reasons to Leave the Slaughter will lure you in with stories that call for imaginative romps through the pastures, down to the pond, or up the perfect climbing tree. It is a place of broken limbs, jealousies flaring up between brothers, unwieldy advice handed down from a father, poverty, and love found then lost again.

Reasons to Leave the Slaughter speaks of the balance between our desperate human need to own a place and call it home, and nature's constant battling back with infestations, tornados crumpling new buildings into dust, an animal's unforeseen death. Told through numerous voices, young and old, male and female, human or animal, these poems give enough space and time to allow the fantastic to take up equal residence alongside reality. Think of Marquez and Murakami's magic. Think of Li-Young Lee's simple quiet elegance. Think of James Wright's earthiness. Think of Richard Siken's honest violent passion. This book revels in all of this, in youthful discovery, in the hopes and despairs of those growing old without seeming purpose, in the ever-present balance between beauty and brutality.

Benjamin Clark spent his formative years in rural Nebraska and now lives in Chicago, Illinois. Among other jobs, he has worked as a teacher, librarian, tile maker, and in a microwaveable popcorn factory. He is receiving his MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute. He regularly attends the Vox Ferus writing workshops, has been widely published in both on-line and print journals, and will have his first full-length collection of poetry published by Write Bloody Publishing in fall of 2011.