The Rocking House, by Michael Holloway

The Rocking House

by Michael Holloway

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Michael Holloway
The Rocking House
Selected Poems 1966-1998
ISBN: 0-9662448-0-X
$16

For the most part, the poet in America has always been a prophet without honor - and often without anything else - in his own country. Walt Whitman, struggling in poverty and poor health at the age of 55, was so desperate that he sold his books from a basket on the streets of Camden. And of course, poetry itself has been perenially unappreciated, mistaught, misunderstood. In our large cities, sad to say, we're far more likely to see a school child carrying a gun under his arm than a book of poems. What we need - to change our perception about the meaning and value of poetry - are collections like The Rocking House. Holloway's style brings to mind Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pablo Neruda, and Lenny Bruce. The poems themselves cover a broad range of themes: glimpses of the poet's childhood and marriage, the ironies of love, the mysteries of desire, the perils of capitalism, the moments of Oriental calm when nature showers us with peace. How to describe these gems? Powerful. Sensuous. Ripe with images that stay with you like melodies long after you've closed the cover of the book. Many of the poems delight and surprise, with biting twists that reveal the meaning in the last line, or even the very last word. Some of these verses will offend the kinds of people who need and deserve offending. For the rest of us, Mr. Holloway has given his readers a vivid work filled with humor, insight, and great joy.

—Michael Pastore, from the "Book of the Week," The Octopus 1998

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1.	The Dark Water 00:50	buy track
2.	Woman With Bowl of Fruit 01:34	buy track
3.	Hyper Post Meta 13:02	buy track
4.	Sushi Nagiri 00:22	buy track
5.	A Partial Letter to Albert 01:40	buy track
6.	Invitation 00:53	buy track
7.	Anita Hill Clarence Thomas 04:36	buy track
8.	Another Insisting Invitation 01:03	buy track
9.	Kissing Hoku 01:28	buy track
10.	Agnus Dei 01:09	buy track
11.	Deep Drop Blue 01:59	buy track
12.	What's That Noise in the Basement 02:33	buy track
13.	Too Many Chiefs and not Enough Indians (an informal history) 06:03	buy track
14.	Vernal Open Knocks Wide 01:25	buy track
15.	Sister Key 02:16	buy track
16.	The Pleasures of Merely 02:10	buy track
17.	Winter Window Wide 00:32	buy track
18.	Senile Felines 04:21	buy track
19.	Sadie 00:22	buy track
20.	Song of the Maintenance Man 01:50	buy track
21.	A Young Boy's Dream 01:15	buy track
22.	Dancing in the Dark 00:55	buy track
23.	A Request for Asylum 00:44	buy track
24.	View From a Chinese Lakeshore 01:40	buy track
25.	Manticora 06:34	buy track
26.	Temperate Zone Hurricane 02:53	buy track
27.	Undoing Time 01:44	buy track
28.	Takeout 01:03	buy track
29.	Red Ball in Blue Room 01:09	buy track

about

Before there was an official Urbana Poet Laureate, Michael Holloway (1934-2022) was working and teaching somewhere left of the university. With the permission of the family, we are making available the recordings originally issued by Non Sequitur Press. This is Holloway's first book.

credits

released February 21, 2024

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about

Spineless Books Urbana, Illinois

Founded 20-02-2002, Spineless Books is an independent literary publishing house dedicated to the production and distribution of innovative literature, with an emphasis on collaborative writing, formal experimentation, and utopian thought.