An Absence So Great And Spontaneous It Is Evidence Of Light

"In a story of William Carlos Williams as a child, told by his mother, the poet puts the wrong shoes on the wrong feet by accident and upon realizing it, leaves them on for a while thinking about how weird it feels. Anne Gorrick does something like that, but with the internet and gender fluidity, in this brilliantly bizarre new book of poems. Searching for anything other than correct answers, pursuing online flaneurie by translation of source texts, the explosive humor here of interruptions, half-remembered allusions, and shifts in diction invents a gonzo musical logic, a texture which stops off at Jackson Mac Low, at Leslie Scalapino’s splintered phenomenology, and at a NY school idiom of being surprised by your own writing, before continuing on with its own glorious road movie. “Kiss the snot otter in a hard hat / and then tell a story about your stuff” “Is Percocet on the periodic table?” “Herpes travels to a science center as Brineshrimpdirect” “Plenty of fish, please touch, pleaser shoes” “She is pro-life curious”" - Trace Peterson"'An Absence' is the news told in “Starfish Slang” and delivered to the house of poetry. You think this book of poems should land on the front lawn, but instead it crashes through the living room window and shatters predictability. It startles you, but no one gets hurt, you are only more aware of the world around you. And healed by the inventory. Anne Gorrick confounds and clarifies through a determined weaving, that is both familiar and strange. The poetry seems to be an accident, but you know it is full of care, and you can’t help but rubberneck as the scenes that are revealed line by line become increasingly absurd and revelatory. It is a time capsule and core sample, compiled from fragments of beauty and danger. There is no turning back." -Michael Rothenbergfrom the author:"These poems began in 2011 with an in