Woods and Clouds Interchangeable

by Michael Earl Craig

Overview

With his fifth collection of poems, Michael Earl Craig delivers a fresh set of tableaux that have us squinting aslant at the ordinary. Dexterously constructed, the scenes, conversations, letters, instructions, stories, bios, and little fables of Woods and Clouds Interchangeable twist the comedic into shapes of startling seriousness, making us laugh at the same time they widen the dimensions of the world we live in.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940696812
Publisher:	Wave Books
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Pages:	122
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Earl Craig is from Dayton, Ohio, home of the gas mask and the mood ring. He is the author of Woods and Clouds Interchangeable (Wave Books, forthcoming 2019), Talkativeness (Wave Books, 2014), Thin Kimono (Wave Books, 2010), Yes, Master (Fence Books, 2006), Can You Relax in My House, (Fence Books, 2002), and the chapbook Jombang Jet (Factory Hollow Press, 2012). He lives in the Shields Valley, near Livingston, Montana, where he runs a full-time farrier practice. He was the 2015-2017 Poet Laureate of Montana.

Read an Excerpt

Town

Town was holding its annual pageant
down by the river.
Floats and kettle corn.
Clowns, horns, stuff like that.
The first float came into view.
Not really a float.
It was a men's plaid sport coat
just floating down the river toward us
face down with arms akimbo.
It rippled noiselessly past us.
For a few minutes nothing happened.
Then came the Shriners, swimming in
white underwear. Hats above water.
Yelping. Struggling. A couple of them
disappeared beneath the surface.
Then it was quiet. Nothing happened.
Probably five minutes passed.
Then a homemade-looking raft
with a slippery-looking hog on it
came into view. The hog was covered
with brown spots. "Leeches!"
someone shouted. People laughed.
Not everyone. No one was sure.
"It's a greased hog on a raft with
maybe leeches," someone said.
"It's not grease," someone said.
"It's maybe sunscreen," someone said.
"Those leeches aren't biting," said a man
holding a stiff slice of pizza.
The river sparkled. Big trucks moved
ant-like up a mountain in the distance,
belching blue puffs. "If those are leeches,"
said a young mother holding her baby,
"I say they're friendly leeches."
"Leeches ain't always evil," said another.
Then the baby who was maybe six months old said
"Opportunistic leeches."
He blinked, working his fingers.
"That's our greased hog."
His voice was deep and calm.
"Covered with opportunistic leeches."

Table of Contents

WHO WAS MRS. BUTTERWORTH 11

ELOISE 12

THE RABBIT 13

HOW TO FIX A BROKEN BUTTERFLY WING 14

WHO WAS VERONICA 15

TOWN 16

YOU SHOULD BE HEARING THE SOUND THAT A MARBLE MAKES 17 DIMES 18

WHO WAS PONTIUS PILATE 19

THE QUALITY OF LIGHT 20

JOCELYN 22

FROM BED 23

WHO WAS KING FRIDAY 24

COLOSSEUM 25

THE PROBLEM 26

CHUNK OF SEA GLASS 27

WHO WAS THE SUN 28

THE COUPLE 29

GIANT HOTEL FERN 30

DON CHEADLE POEM 31

WHO WAS CATULLUS 32

AT THE PARTY 33

THIS LOOKS RUSSIAN TO ME 34

WHAT BUGGED ME WAS 35

WHO WAS FRANZ LISZT 36

SOME TEA HAS EVAPORATED HERE 37

YOUR PAINTING 38

THE TURIN HORSE 40

WHO WAS SIMONE WEIL 41

BILLINGS CLINIC ROOM 2508 42

IDEAS FOR A MOSTLY SILENT FILM IN 3 FIFTEEN-MINUTE SCENES 43 GENTLY TAPPING RAVIOLIS IN A POT OF BOILING WATER 44

WHO WAS MAN O’ WAR 45
FINDINGS 46

ICE, SALAD, GLOVES 47

NATALIA 48

WHO WAS FRÄULEIN UNBEKANNT 49

THE CHANGE 50

ROSE TANTRUM 51

THANKSGIVING 52

WHO WAS HEIRONYMOUS BOSCH 53

NPR 54

THE BRANCHES OF CLOWNS 55

MARYLAND 56

WHO WAS CHIEF PLENTY COUPS 57

THE SIGNAL 58

28 APRIL 2016 59

I’M IN ROOM 927 60

WHO WAS JOAN OF ARC 62

LADY CHAMBLESS’S YARD 63

THE DEAD ELEPHANT 64

THE DROP-KICK 66

WHO WAS LU YOU 67

THE FAIR 68

HOW I SPENT THE AFTERNOON 69 CURRENTLY OVER KANSAS 70

WHO WAS SIR ERNEST HENRY SHACKLETON 71 TWO PEOPLE 72

HOTEL FINLEN 73

HEIMLICH’S BEAGLES 74

WHO WAS DEEP BLUE 75

I HAVE STUFFED MYSELF AT DINNER 76

THE BODY BUILDER 77

CHRISTMAS 78

WHO WAS GENGHIS KHAN 79

LAWS OF NATURE 80

BRISKLY JERKED RUGS 81

Editorial Reviews

"Craig renders unsettling dreams and quotidian clutter with sparse language and a quiet, distant voice to conjure poems brimming with the bizarre."—Publishers Weekly

"Quite possibly the funniest poet writing today, Craig's unadorned poetry tends toward the deadpan and the offbeat, with an almost David Lynch–like sense of the uncanny."—The Believer

"Craig animates a world we secretly share, and the tension and kilter of his poems reflect 'dreamish autobiographical thoughts' with great poise."—Lia Purpura, The Antioch Review

"I like being in the world of Michael Craig's poems. Anything can happen, and probably will, and it will affect me in some small or large ways that I couldn't have imagined. The precision of their imagery keeps me reeling with delight."—James Tate

From the Publisher