Zero Is a Number

Set in crowded homes, pool-halls, and hospitals, the poems in Zero Is a Number are often tender, sometimes infused with violence, and relentlessly searching for meaning among stapled thumbs, snake tattoos, and gasoline baths. This propulsive pursuit of truth-words rushing across the pages in a passionate excavation-made me sit up straighter. Reading Michael Hammerle is like dreaming yourself into somebody else's vehement, breakneck, ardent life.-Rachel Pastan is the author, most recently, o...