Manoleria: Poems

$16.95

Author: Daniel Khalastchi

Publisher: Tupelo Press (2011)

Under the influence of broadcasts such as National Public Radio's "Marketplace" (a daily roundup of stock reports and business news), Daniel Khalastchi composed a series of character-driven poems whose recurrent narrator is physically and mentally manipulated while the world around him takes little notice. Through their chaos and horror, these poems ask a reader to question the ways in which our careening healthcare system, crumbling financial/housing/job markets, and war on multiple fronts are actually affecting us—both inside and out.

"In Manoleria, the body, broken apart 'in elegant stress,' re-congregates. Formally, the poet is taking us through the emotional work of picking up pieces. Despite the splintering, despite the hemorrhage, somehow 'all is accounted for.' A cardinal debut."

–D. A. Powell

"With composure so unflinching as to be unnerving, the speaker of this mysterious, deft collection explicates what would be, in other hands, unimaginable and unspeakable atrocity. . . . Khalastchi uses a steady, steady hand to reach into the quiver."

–Robyn Schiff

"Part nightmare journal, part survivor's narrative, this haunting volume recounts one soul's journey through the selva oscura within. A music emerges that bears ultimate promise, for 'somewhere inside I hear calling a shepherd.'"

–Srikanth Reddy

Winner of the Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book Prize