The Matter of the Casket, Poems by Thom Ward
In
the droll but macabre prose poems of The Matter of the Casket,
Thom Ward keeps the light and the dark in crucial, perfect balance: deepening
mirth into intelligence, and finding solace in the blackest corners of
human experience.
Glowing Review of The Matter of the Casket
"I see Thom Ward's poems as very much a part of the prose poem tradition. And, yes, there is a tradition, from Max Jacob and the Surrealists on down to Russell Edson. Yet working within this tradition Ward has created a world of his own. To read his work is to visit a world where nearly everything has a life, and a voice, not just people and animals but pronouns and vodka. It is a world that, for all its darkness, strangeness and play, we recognize and share. These poems stick." --Louis Jenkins
"'One bone at a time, Florence gave her dog the family skeleton.' Thom Ward's poems often begin with such a premise, a tidbit of absurdity or goofball humor, but be forewarned: the jokes they tell are unpredictable and you might end up laughing with a knife in your heart. At its deepest levels, play engages the unknown, and humor is one of its best scouts. The poems in The Matter of the Casket make crazy, brazen raids on questions of human life and death, dragging back to us their findings. They are at once profound and very, very funny." --Chase Twichell
Thom Ward is editor for BOA Editions, Ltd., an independent publishing house of American poetry and poetry in translation. Ward's poetry collections include, Various Orbits (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2004) and Small Boat with Oars of Different Size (Carnegie Mellon, 2000). Ward's poetry chapbook, Tumblekid, the winner of the 1998 Devil's Millhopper Poetry Contest, was published by the University South Carolina-Aiken. He teaches creative writing workshops at universities, and tutors individual students. Ward lives with his wife and children in Upstate New York. His vices include golf, martinis and reading.
ISBN: 978-1933456690, 84 pages, $17.00