Moments Without Names
Moments Without Names: New & Selected Prose Poems
by Morton Marcus
A selection of one-hundred and ten poems, sixty-three of which are new, from the man Alan Cheuse called "a marvelous godfather" to the prose poem. Employing and many times parodying the structures of discourse by which we have communicated our sense of the world through the ages, Marcus re-examines the notions on which the human species has understood its place in the universe. In the process, he has created his own cosmology, a cosmology by turns humorous, satirical, poignant, and always compassionate in revealing our beliefs, foibles, hopes, and contradictory actions.
About the Author
Morton Marcus (1936-2009) published more than 500 poems in literary journals across the country, including Poetry (Chicago), TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, Chelsea, The Chicago Review, The Iowa Review, Zyzzyva, Poetry Northwest, and The Denver Quarterly. His work has appeared in over 90 anthologies in the United States, Europe, and Australia. He also served as the poet in residence for several universities, and led workshops at colleges across America. Marcus was also a long time co-host of KUSP radio's The Poetry Show, the longest running poetry radio show in the United States. He published eleven volumes of poetry during his lifetime.
Accolades
“Mort Marcus one of America’s hidden literary treasures, has become a superb master of the prose poem…Often, it’s the situation, the little storyline that captivates…At other times its is language…that sends a shiver up the spine. I couldn’t get enough of this delectable stuff, and there is nothing else like it anywhere.”
“Marcus’s new collection of prose poems is a sensuous feast, shimmering with playfulness and hope. Marcus is a master of the form, a poet whose splendidly imaginative work has helped define the genre.… Sage, shaman, storyteller—Marcus through his unerring craft and voracious, eclectic imagination rewards his reader with rich new visions of the ‘ordinary’ world.”
