Hard Labor, Poems by Richard Martin (Jan 2019)

$15.00

Hard Labor is quietly wonderful – haunting, moving, mysterious.
–David Thorburn, Professor of Literature, MIT. 

Observer

They all sleep
in the room
with her –
the dog, two cats,
the daughter, at times,
home from college.

I live upstairs
in a county of trees.
Good night is my future.
The moon lowers on a string
into my dreams

I’m awake in the sunlight
often, sitting or standing
there, watching.

(excerpt from Hard Labor, Poems by Richard Martin. Igneus Press (Jan, 2019))

Description

Richard Martin’s most recent work is Hobo Return (Igneus Press, 2021, the fourth in the White Quartet series begun with Igneus founder Peter Kidd in 2018), Chapter and Verse (Spuyten Duyvil, 2021), and Ceremony of the Unknown (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020). Martin is also the author of Goosebumps of Antimatter (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018), Techniques in the Neighborhood of Sleep (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018) and the short story collections Altercations in the Quiet Car and Buffoons in the Gene Pool from (Lavender Ink Press/Fell Swoop). Martin is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship for Poetry. He lives in Boston with his family.
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About the White Quartet series: Hobo Return is the last in a four book chapbook series conceived with late Igneus founder, Peter Kidd. The first in the White Quartet series, Hard Labor, came out in 2019, with Cosmic Sandbox released later that year. Sighting Icarus came out in 2020, with Martin dedicating this third in the quartet In Memoriam to Peter Kidd, a gesture of love and friendship for his fellow poet. The final book in this series, Hobo Return (2021), rounds out the vision of a poet in awe of being in the world.