BEAST BOOK by Michael Gessner

“These poems are lively and smart and musical.”

—Robert Pinsky

“Spun like fractals from the poet’s personal and cultural history; from art, science, and myth, the images of Beast Book stalk the imagination, exposing the symmetries deep within the psychogenesis  that informs us . . . . dialectic serves this collection well in its motifs— poet-anima, satyr-sylph, Apollonian-Dionysian—in the process of illuminating our understanding and in the perception of the self . . . . Gessner’s best volume, a milestone in contemporary poetry.”

—Gerald Mills

“If you think Beasts exist only in the ancient world, then open this book and meet your makers.  Mantichore, Hydra, The Lamia, and various tritons co-exist with nymphs and sylphs; appear side by side with Robert Creeley, Sylvia Plath, John Ashbery, and the legendary barnacle geese of medieval naturalists.  History, Justice, Conscience Purity, Predictability are introduced by the Beast Handler.  Everything leads to ‘Care and Feeding’ in Michael Gessner’s capable hands.”

—Sue Ann Simar, Editor, 10x3

“The poet embraces a ‘beast-handler’ family, servants to animals, and gamely joins in the ancient trade.  Gessner shepherds in a menagerie of mythical beasts, mentors and poets.  Beast Book emerges as Leviathan, great-mouthed and green-lipped, in mythographic regions where ‘heart eats heart,’ our own included.”

—Amy King

“Of the poems permitted entry to the Hall of Poetry, most are consigned to remain  on the ground floor; of those that rise, some ascend toward the ceiling, and from these, Gessner’s slip through the roof . . . . Beast Book is Psyche’s Encyclopaedia Aeterna.”

—Chris Wieland

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Poems of Michael Gessner have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and as finalists for “Discovery”/The Nation , and the Pablo Neruda Award. Beast Book is his fourth poetry title. His work has been featured in American Letters & Commentary, American Literary Review, The Journal of The American Medical Association, Oxford Magazine, and others. He has read at University College Dublin, and the American-Irish Historical Society (NYC.) His work has been called “Striking,” (David Barber, The Atlantic,) and “Structurally ingenious,” (Jonathan Galassi, Farrar, Straus & Giroux.) He lives in Tucson.

Book Information:
· Paperback: 104 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-002-6