Out of the Blank

(Paperback)

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Description

We waited for Word to arrive/ like a messiah in a stagecoach/ or a sheriff riding a thundercloud.

From beloved poet Elaine Equi comes her latest collection of playful, surreal poetry. Thoughtful, witty, curious" (The New York Times), Equi's subversive voice delicately refracts human experiences from the colors of weather to the strange divisions of our bodies, from the emptiness of family homes to the flow of time itself.

Reviews

Praise for Out of the Blank

In her splendid continuance of cascading thinking, Elaine Equi unfolds the ordinary. Her pluckiness billows in this latest collection where solid matter morphs with edgy surprise in a poetics that speaks straight to us. Nobody quite knocks it out of the ballpark like Equi! Maureen Owen, author of Poets on the Road

"Nestled within the seductive mastery Equi displays, we find poems on time, taking stock, emotions, dreams, commonality. There are regrets conveyed with a sense of humor. Theres music, even Lorcas guitar. The mood is almost unnoticeably quieter. Sepia light/seeps / into everything. Delight in this superb collection."Vincent Katz, author of Broadway for Paul

I have always marveled at Elaine Equis poems. She does more with fewer words than any other poet I know. And yet, I would not call her a minimalist, but a maximalist, who writes with graceful humor and leads us gently into the dark and haunted places in our thinking. John Yau, author of Please Wait by the Coatroom

Past Praise:

Praise for The Intangibles

Finalist for the 2019 Big Other Book Award in Poetry
Hyperallergic, Favorite Poetry Collections of 2019

Always count on Elaine Equis nimble gymnastics to flip the ordinary around and create something rich and strange . . . These poems do not wear their brooding hearts on their sleeves but rather flirt and banter, drawing us close before revealing their ruminative complexities. Albert Mobilio, Hyperallergic

This is a book for now and for the future, a panacea and antidote to the fear of the inane unknown. Equis elegant control of line, image, percolating observation is always a taut surprise. I feel better already. Inside these subtle poems, complete little universes, theres never a dull moment. Anne Waldman, author of Bard, Kinetic

Praise for Elaine Equi

Whether celebrating clones or revising Led Zeppelin, Equi melds verse with aphorism, wisdom with wicked playfulness." Entertainment Weekly

These poems, brief as they sometimes are, simply-stated as they almost always are, open up a ground, a web, of the conscious and subconscious dailiness we all experience but rarely self-examine or seek to understand. New York Journal of Books

There is a lot of fake poetry out there. Equi is real. She changes the way you look at things. You cannot fake the authenticity that informs even the most casual of her observations. David Lehman, founder and series editor of The Best American Poetry

Author Bio

Known for her witty, aphoristic, and innovative work, Elaine Equi is the author of over ten collections of poetry. Her books include Ripple Effect: New & Selected Poems, which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award and shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize; Voice-Over, which won the San Francisco State Poetry Award; Sentences and Rain; and The Intangibles. In 2023, she was the guest editor of the annual anthology, The Best American Poetry.