Army of Giants - by Matthew Rohrer (Paperback)

About the Book

"Formally audacious, these are poems that playfully engage with word constraint, iambic pentameter, and long-sentence forms, keeping us in a constant state of surprise and curiosity. In sanctifying everything from lava lamps, cemeteries, and clouds to literary heroes such as Anna Ahkmatova, Chika Sagawa, and Lewis Warsh, Matthew Rohrer continues his project of uncovering wonder wherever it can found."--

Book Synopsis

Matthew Rohrer's Army of Giants is a diverse meditation on the ways in which the physical world intersects, overlaps, and informs the universe of the imagination.

Formally audacious, these are poems that playfully engage with word constraint, iambic pentameter, and long-sentence forms, keeping us in a constant state of surprise and curiosity. By sanctifying everything from lava lamps, cemeteries, and clouds to literary heroes such as Anna Akhmatova, Chika Sagawa, and Lewis Warsh, Matthew Rohrer continues his project of uncovering wonder wherever it can found. In poems that rise and build toward a gigantic peak at the center, Army of Giants provides new poetic vistas from which we can contemplate the worlds we inhabit.

Review Quotes

Even through the clamor of war, garbage trucks, stolen cars, and crying babies, Rohrer maintains an alluring tranquility, a Taoist chill to temper a casualness that might otherwise get flagged as too hip. Li Po and Rumi drink jugs of wine, "Wu Wei" presides calmly over the lovely closing poem that takes his name, and clouds drift from one poem to the next.
Michael Brodeur, The Boston Globe

Rohrer's frequently beautiful, brief poems are rooted in specific images that initially seem unrelated--but which ultimately form a unity as meditations on how the ordinary distractions of everyday life can be seen as the source for almost everything important in life.
Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

Rohrer writes poems that crackle and sputter, often branching toward new meaning and emotion within the span of a single line.
Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Matthew Rohrer is the author of The Sky Contains the Plans (Wave Books, 2020), The Others (Wave Books, 2017), which was the winner of the 2017 Believer Book Award, Surrounded by Friends (Wave Books, 2015), Destroyer and Preserver (Wave Books, 2011), A Plate of Chicken (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Rise Up (Wave Books, 2007) and A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press, 2002), and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He has appeared on NPR's All Things Considered and The Next Big Thing. His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at NYU. He can be reached at luminousfork@gmail.com.