Pajamaist, The
Winner of the 2007 William Carlos Williams Award
Matthew Zapruder's second book of poetry comprises long poetic sequences and shorter lyrics. Anchored by the series "Twenty Poems for Noelle," in which the poet engages loss and perseverance in a post-September 11 New York City, The Pajamaist moves from Canada's expansive landscape to the intimate particulars of scientific research on birds, from allusions to indie rock to a homage to a literary progenitor, the late James Merrill. The title poem, a synopsis for an unwritten novel, describes a world in which a "cure" for surffering has been discovered and commodified. Through a wide variety of situations, many recognizable, others derived more from the poet's particular imagination, the poems in The Pajamaist question our contemporary world with a mixture of humor, sensitivity and linguistic innovation.
ISBN: 1-55659-244-2