Black Aperture

Black ApertureIn his moving debut collection, Matt Rasmussen faces the tragedy of his brother s suicide, refusing to focus on the expected pathos, blurring the edge between grief and humor. In Outgoing, the speaker erases his brother s answering machine message to save his family from the shame of dead you answering calls. In other poems, once ordinary objects become dreamlike. A buried light bulb blooms downward, a flower of smoldering filaments. A refrigerator

In his moving debut collection, Matt Rasmussen faces the tragedy of his brother s suicide, refusing to focus on the expected pathos, blurring the edge between grief and humor. In Outgoing, the speaker erases his brother s answering machine message to save his family from the shame of dead you / answering calls. In other poems, once-ordinary objects become dreamlike. A buried light bulb blooms downward, a flower / of smoldering filaments. A refrigerator holds an evening landscape, a tinfoil lake, vegetables / dying in the crisper. Destructive and redemptive, Black Aperture opens to the complicated entanglements of mourning: damage and healing, sorrow and laughter, and torment balanced with moments of relief.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
Published: 05/13/2013
ISBN: 9780807150863
Pages: 64
Weight: 0.24lbs
Size: 8.45h x 5.54w x 0.21d
Award: Walt Whitman Award - Winner
Award: Minnesota Book Award - Winner
Award: National Book Awards - Finalist