And So [Paperback]

And So, the third collection by Joel Brouwer frames and zooms close-up on lovers and strangers as they couple and recoil. Cynical yet energetic, And So is a considered study of the ways we tell the lives we lead. With its poignant lacunae and recurring events, Brouwer offers an unstinting look at how separate our lives together are.

Poetry that frames and zooms close-up on lovers and strangers as they couple and recoil

JOEL BROUWERS two previous collections of poems are Exactly What Happened (Purdue University Press, 1999), and Centuries (Four Way Books, 2003). He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. He teaches at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

THE REHEARSAL At left a yellow flat of sunlight leans against a raw brick wall. Two cats--one white, one black--slump along the vast windowsill as if drugged. Their little fangs glisten. A suggestion of steeple beyond the window, coupled with a recording of children shouting in the imaginary square below, conjures an older quarter. Red sofa stage right. Coffee table strewn with breakfast's remnants. Dish of bloody berries, greasy pages torn from a pastry, a coffee cup set down absently, titled on its saucer. And on the sofa she's reading newspapers. The world is dramatic but not tragic...