The Ghost of Ida Warren
The morning brought embers
and coats thrown
on a bed, coins at a wall. And my heart
filled with red, red honey
and the sound
of water, a whole river
exchanged for paper and torn
so that the fish that swim the bottom
could be scooped into a pail. The sound
of trains sinking in an enclosed
space. The blind roar
of an apple tree in flames.
It is easy to say, “This field
follows the river for miles through the darkness.”
A ride in a toy train across real rails.
Boog City
“Consider these words carefully dear reader. There is a new & ancient sound slipping out of the ethers, and onto the radar of American Poesy! And quite frankly, not only is poet Michael Ford one of its very best practitioners, but his collection Carbon is easily one of the great standard measures of this moment. Inside this book you’ll find the seminal & glowing extract of those ethers, synergies of thereness that have no cause or precedent, and, even more importantly, a precise transcription of the silent tick & boom of the mighty alchemies of life. Yes, these poems are big news! Think of these writs as a prelude to the strange music which will be heard by the future astronomers of dusty earth!” —Dave Brinks
Michael Ford grew up in the Austin neighborhood on the west side of Chicago. From 1999 to 2009, he lived in New Orleans. In his poems, he often attempts to create verbal approximations of landscape paintings of those two cities, with impossible details added to each scene. He is the author of Carbon and Where We Expect to See You Soon (both from Ugly Duckling Presse), and Olympia Street (published by Trembling Pillow Press).
Carbon is a worthy read, at once familiar and alien, traditional and iconoclastic—a ride in a toy train across real rails.
Boog City
Other UDP titles from Michael Ford here
ISBN: 978-1-933254-21-0
Trade Paperback
Perfect-bound. 80 pp, 5.5 x 7.5 in
Publication Date: January 01 2006
Distribution: SPD