The Charnel House on Joyce Kilmer Avenue
by Rob Cook

Praise for Rob Cook's previous books

On Last Window in the Punk Hotel: “At first glance, New York poet Rob Cook's surreal poetry might unnerve an unsuspecting reader. Cook has found a voice that is so precisely his own, new rhythms, new rhymes, that his world may appear foreign at first. Nothing could be further from the truth. Last Window in the Punk Hotel rants surreal but you'll find yourself tied to its purposes again and again. Cook's language is its own guide and shortly into reading Last Window in the Punk Hotel the reader finds themselves making the same leaps of faith as Cook, drawn into his intelligent will, a resident, if you will, at Cooks' Hotel.”

—Michael Dennis

On Undermining of the Democratic Club: “Eschewing neat closures, Cook creates poems that arguably compose one long gesture, the sections open to and echoing each other, all held together by the pain of a unblinking awareness as well as by a ubiquitous freshness in the writing—if Cook sees a worn linguistic or perceptual path in front of him, he always veers off in a new direction that challenges both himself and his reader. Fueled by a deep dismay, the poetry goes beyond Surrealism, for Breton's 'astonish me' is no longer sufficient; the many contemporary outrages of Cook's 'always lurking, indefinable country' require instead a poetic that can register the shock of 'castrated hymns' and 'the statues of sharks inside our mouths.'”

—Philip Dacey

On Empire in the Shade of a Grass Blade: “Cook writes admirably rhythmic poems, For instance, "After the Psalms Have Gone": there is a door /and a book of gold/and a road made of light/and mountains blowing/among the windy fallen stars. The beat of the line mirrors the revelations that are the subject of the poem and his easy and unembarrassed contemplation of the spiritual is refreshing. His tying of the intimacies of personal experience into a larger cosmic picture gives his work a profundity that might not be apparent at first glance. You have the admirable clarity of "The Book of Iowa” I climb out of bed, listen/to you digging a cold space/under the crows and cities of corn. One has overall an impression of a poetry fuelled by melancholy and dismay, which disdains easy conclusions and simple joy. The vigour of his language and the startling freshness of his imagery are undeniable, as is his talent.”

—Gareth Spark

Read an excerpt from The Charnel House on Joyce Kilmer Avenue