Rise Up

After a somewhat slow start, I really warmed up to Matthew Rohrer's Rise Up. Some highlights:

"I tried to walk it off/
but I must have walked in the wrong direction."

That was the turning point for me. Everything just got better after that.

"I want no one to have reason/
to hate me, though I hate/
them, I hate them all."

 The narrator imagining Robert Frost (sort of) speaking on the kitchen radio:
"...miles to go before it sleeps."

"Do you hear that? she says.
It sounds like a boxer punching a horse/
through the top half of a barn door." (wow.)

"At night this is what scares me:
Having to piss the forest blackness:
Seeing a faint glow:
Knowing it is two elk working together/
to balance a birthday cake on the their antlers."

"A child wakes up laughing/
it is going to rain/
dark sound of a saw."  

I love "dark sound of a saw" because it instantly reminded me of this NPR small desk concert podcast video I have of the band Horse feathers. One of the band members plays a saw (or a singing saw, as it is called by the musically inclined). The bending of the singing saw is familiar, yet haunting, and goes with guitar and cello so peacefully. I'm trying to think of any other instruments that have that homemade/workingman aspect yet sound so sweet and sinister at the same time. Are there any others?  

The book almost ends with these lines:

"A new song is sung onto/
her green dress and her long legs."

The strange, but fascinating sounds, a marriage possibly on the rocks (or did I read it that way after seeing Tapes 'n Tapes live and listening to Insistor on repeat afterwards?)  and the absurd but beautiful imagery all led me to finish the book in one night, reread it on the the train the next day and then once again when at home, all in a span of 24 hours. Shout out to Kathy for recommending Matthew [(no L.) Did you know there are two Matthew Rohrers? Crazy! Cool article on it on WeWhoAreAboutToDie] Rohrer after I wrote an imitation of Matthew Zapruder's poem "Work". I'll post that imitation in time, if I haven't already.

Well that's all for tonight. On Deck: The Tree Around by Chris Tonelli

Encore: Tapes 'n Tapes lyrics (from Insistor)

Kelly, Kelly, it's not your right 
To be cheating, fighting and starting life 
When my head and hands are tied to you so tight 
Oh Kelly just tell me one more thing 
Is it mine or is it some other ring 
That you wear as we lie in bed tonight? 

And Kelly, who's the logger? 
Oh, Kelly, who's the logger? 
Oh Kelly, who's the logger who's trees were felled with might? 
And Kelly, hold your water 
Oh Kelly, hold your water 
Oh Kelly, Kelly, hold your water tight