Distributed for Tupelo Press
April at the Ruins
“Celebrated poet and professor Lawrence Raab’s tenth collection of poetry is one of mysterious and visionary sight, quiet music, and the unaffected stillness of reflection that is common to masterpieces capable of holding their potency for generations.”
—Marina Brown, Los Angeles Review
“Every poem in April at the Ruins is a powerhouse: rich, quietly essential, profoundly lucid. Many have flavors of the best parables or folk tales, bringing us into intimate relation with mysteries and transformations abounding around and inside us…. Raab’s sense of irony is unerring. These poems prove that one of the only true forms of consolation is giving darkness its due.”
—Amy Gerstler
“[T]his collection isn’t just nostalgic. Instead, it is full of wonder. Wonder and the ability to step through wonder into a whole new place.”
—Alexis David, Compulsive Reader
—Marina Brown, Los Angeles Review
“Every poem in April at the Ruins is a powerhouse: rich, quietly essential, profoundly lucid. Many have flavors of the best parables or folk tales, bringing us into intimate relation with mysteries and transformations abounding around and inside us…. Raab’s sense of irony is unerring. These poems prove that one of the only true forms of consolation is giving darkness its due.”
—Amy Gerstler
“[T]his collection isn’t just nostalgic. Instead, it is full of wonder. Wonder and the ability to step through wonder into a whole new place.”
—Alexis David, Compulsive Reader
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
1
Lost 5
In the Earliest Days 6
After the Sky Had Fallen 7
False Dawn 10
Perhaps 11
A Little Music 13
A Children’s Story 14
2
My Expedition 19
Pastoral 21
The Minor Characters 22
The Weird Museum 24
You Never Actually Die When You Die in a Dream 25
Moon and Sun 27
A Long Train Ride to the Sea 28
Death of the Invisible Man 30
The Awful Pleasures 32
3
The Saint in the Painting 37
Pleasures of a Minor God 39
Just Now 41
The Beautiful Afternoon of Chance 43
Why We Are Here 44
One of the Ways We Talk to Each Other 47
What We Did Yesterday 48
Little Ritual 51
For Us 52
4
The Muse Explains 57
Stopping by Woods 59
One of Those Secret Lives 61
Twilight 63
When You Find Yourself Remembering Yourself 66
History 69
Lies 71
April at the Ruins 73
5
Swan Song. 79
"The World Provides Evidence for Almost Anything" 81
God Considers His Losses 83
The Next Moment 85
Until Evening 87
Hometown 88
In America 91
At First They Seemed Like Strangers 93
1
Lost 5
In the Earliest Days 6
After the Sky Had Fallen 7
False Dawn 10
Perhaps 11
A Little Music 13
A Children’s Story 14
2
My Expedition 19
Pastoral 21
The Minor Characters 22
The Weird Museum 24
You Never Actually Die When You Die in a Dream 25
Moon and Sun 27
A Long Train Ride to the Sea 28
Death of the Invisible Man 30
The Awful Pleasures 32
3
The Saint in the Painting 37
Pleasures of a Minor God 39
Just Now 41
The Beautiful Afternoon of Chance 43
Why We Are Here 44
One of the Ways We Talk to Each Other 47
What We Did Yesterday 48
Little Ritual 51
For Us 52
4
The Muse Explains 57
Stopping by Woods 59
One of Those Secret Lives 61
Twilight 63
When You Find Yourself Remembering Yourself 66
History 69
Lies 71
April at the Ruins 73
5
Swan Song. 79
"The World Provides Evidence for Almost Anything" 81
God Considers His Losses 83
The Next Moment 85
Until Evening 87
Hometown 88
In America 91
At First They Seemed Like Strangers 93