Product Description Direct and honest, with a deep reverence for the mundane and a zest for the extraordinary in the ordinary moment, Michael Rothenberg takes us down some mean dog streets of the mind. Indefinite Detention: A Dog Story is explosive in intent, but provacative in expression, a testament to the freedom of being: the way out of prison is to dance. Precise observations of the absurdities of the modern world combined with an accessible and informal intelligence make this an intoxicating book. Rothenberg stretches his canvas wide to paint modernity with a Whitmanesque flourish, in graceful and outspoken poems, leaving no crimes unrecorded. Rothenberg is a poetic engineer who builds spiritual and literary bridges, big bridges constructed of language and emotions. Anger and love, passion and compassion, humour and conviction, his message is conveyed with a mixture of self-deprecating humor, sparkling insight and a west coast whimsy driven by the rhythm of the surf and the immense rhyme of a tragic time. Review From under the Northern California Redwoods, Michael Rothenberg writes with an abundantly concerned and familiar voice, commenting freely about the world at large and matters at hand, keeping a sharp look at the aftershocks of reality in a future which happens to be 'now.' A delightful book for our times. --Joanne Kyger Out of a seeming mist of in-the-moment observations Michael Rothenberg treats us to hawk-like swoops of intellect that land unerringly on startling insights. He gives us the world that hides from the world and does so with wit, compassion and an ease with technique that renders his poems both masterful and readable. --Robert Priest About the Author Michael Rothenberg is a poet, songwriter, editor and publisher of the online literary magazine Big Bridge and co-founder of the global poetry movement 100 Thousand Poets for Change. His books of poetry include Favorite Songs (Big Bridge Press), Man/Women with Joanne Kyger (Big Bridge Press), The Paris Journals (Fish Drum Press), Monk Daddy (Blue Press), Unhurried Vision (La Alameda/University of New Mexico Press), Choose (Big Bridge Press), and My Youth As A Train (Foothills Publishing), and he is the author of the eco-spy thriller Punk Rockwell (Tropical Press).

Review "For sheer scope and clarity there's nothing like Favorite Songs, the poems range from a fantasy for the American Surfer to an elegy for an extinct sparrow. In these poems there's a fine interlinking of autobiographical perceptions with accurate imagery and, at the same time, the author is engaged sending his rhizomes into the broad world of thought and travel." -- Michael McClure"Michael Rothenberg has one of those genius takes on language. A lot of this is the relish with which he lays out lines of poems like a master chef might produce an intricate, fine meal. But there's a restraint too, that of the practical botanist (he's that-- I have no idea how or if he cooks), so that: the poems are exciting and physical but also slow. Michael has wit and wordlove, enough to move mountains, chip by chip. (They're not too slow-- the mountain's there before you know it.) -- Jack Collom Product Description "From the Heart is where Michael tests his sincerity, indeed where else? This thoughtful, heartful, plant lover and naturalist expresses himself with `no pretense to divine', just women and a hundred thousand sea birds in the pages of this poetry, `finding time to consult the better part' of himself." Joanne Kyger About the Author Michael Rothenberg lives in Pacifica, CA. He is a poet, songwriter and publisher of Big Bridge Press and Big Bridge, a webzine of poetry and everything else. His poems have appeared in Berkeley Poetry Review, Exquisite Corpse, Jacket, Sycamore Review, Zyzzyva and many other publications. Most recently he is editor of Overtime, Selected Poems by Philip Whalen. His book of poems "The Paris Journals" will be published (Fish Drum Press) in the year 2000. His novel Punk Rockwell (Tropical Press) will be on the shelves in March 2000.