Broken Symmetry (Made in Michigan Writers Series)

Michigan poet Jack Ridl leads readers into reflective connection with the everyday world in this unique and enjoyable volume. Cover Contents Broken Symmetry I. Fractals The History of the Pencil This Is Another Reason to Write a Poem Against Elegies Rainbow Framing the Morning After Reading Dom John Chapman, Benedictine Abbot Learning from Old Houses Last Chores of Fall Fractals Fragments from the Early Morning The Last Thing This Was My Real Life Waiting with William Stafford in an Oregon Airport Toys in the Attic St. Francis in Disney World The Crank Collector That’s Enough The Mail Carrier Tinnitus Out in the Fields with the Dogs a Week before Christmas The Materialism of Angels II. Quantum Theory I Am Wearing Your Shirt Worn Morning When I Was Conceived What Then Forgetting How to Sleep The Remote The Ace of Spades Sorting through the Records February Is No Month to Move During the Last Two Weeks of His Life, He Wrote Only the Last Lines of Poems Waking Up in a Cold Sweat Hands Tabula Rasa The Salt and Pepper Collector The Sculptor of TV The Time between Mornings Traveling Back Selling the House Evensong Still Here III. Differential Equations Aubade for This Morning On Our Dog’s Birthday Flying in over Key West Divine Women: The Woodblocks of Utamaro The Rain on the Burren Walking the Creek with Dogs Setting out the Puzzle Pieces The Gardeners My Father Gardening in Heaven Raking Leaves with the Gods in July A Few Days before Another Memorial Day Weekend Knowing Now You’ll Never Be a Clown Repairing the House Sisley’s “Snow at Louveciennes” Instead of Vacationing in Maine The Comforting The Drywallers Listen to Sinatra while They Work What We Do Waiting on the Beatitudes The Man Who Wanted to Change the World Burying the Poems Keeping On Living in the Twenty-First Century Acknowledgments Credits Broken Symmetry is a collection drawn from the experiences of daily life and organized through the context of mathematics. Poet Jack Ridl uses remarkably clear and precise language to express a singular awareness of the world around us. Some of the poems in this volume deal with the universal human experience of loss, others discover a fresh perspective on what is easily overlooked, and many seek the goodness and joy that remain in a challenging world. Poems are grouped into chapters by mathematical themes, suggesting a commonality in these two separate worlds that is often overlooked. The straightforward language and universal subject matter make Broken Symmetry a profound collection of poetry that will appeal to readers of all backgrounds.