The Truth Squad

Dennis Schmitz

Dennis Schmitz writes complex, energetic poems that insist on the primacy of the physical world—the world of flesh and bone, desire and death. In this, his seventh book, he suggests that “the truth is all in the pieces” and uses analogy, metaphor, and the juxtaposition of images and ideas to reveal the interconnectedness of our world. “My responsibility as a writer,” he says, “is to be true to the particulars. So that they have an existence in themselves.” In search of this truth, Schmitz writes poems which explore and reveal a delicious wonderment.

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ISBN: 9781556591822

Format: Paperback

The Truth Squad

Roped against the bridge pier so that
his tired legs can scissor down

more compressor hose, Chicago’s last
sandblaster kicks from one graffitied

meaning to another, his free hand kneading
over his face a rubbery other face

& glassed eyeholes as the compressor
overhead accelerates into rapturous bursts.

It’s the same sexual noise he sucks
through the gritty mouthpiece, panting

as he works. Gang tags, laments & manifestoes
crackle away under his pistol’s hissed-out

spellings. I read what he denies
from the next bridge over. Behind me

all Dearborn Street is stalled, paraphrasing
where its cars want to go. My own car’s

sideways across both lanes, your plea squawking
on the cell phone. I’ve flipped

open the trunk for spray cans;
two cars back, another commando is beginning

to letter a Honda’s windshield.
Determined others rappel down the Wrigley

Building’s white sides.
At least one of us will write your secret.

About the Author

Dennis Schmitz was raised in Iowa and earned degrees at Loras College and the University of Chicago. He is the author of nine books of poetry, including About Night: Selected and New Poems (Field). He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Shelley Memorial Award, two Pushcart Prizes, the 92Y Discovery award, the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He taught for over thirty years at …

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Reviews

“Schmitz’s stature is such as to make us know why we cannot do without poems.” —Parnassus: Poetry in Review

“In this neatly titled volume, a fine poet burnishes his narrative persona, declaring himself one who quests for truth, and finding it in oddity. He adds to his stature as a poet of great intellect rooted in California, but also in industrial Chicago and bib-overall Iowa.” —Tom Goff, from a “Reader Response” card