MPH and other road poems / Ed Roberson ; edited by Andrew Peart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberson, Ed, author.

Contributor:

Peart, Andrew, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century.

American poetry.

Motorcycle touring--United States--Poetry.

Motorcycle touring.

Travel.

Roberson, Ed--Travel--Poetry.

Roberson, Ed.

United States.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

xvii, 151 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : Verge Books, 2021.

Summary:

"In 2015, while, in his words, "dismantling my house in New Jersey and preparing it for sale," Ed Roberson discovered in some envelopes in his attic a manuscript he thought lost, drawn from the experiences of the summer of 1970, when the poet, along with two friends, rode cross-country from Pittsburgh to San Francisco and back on two BMW motorcycles. The recovery of this manuscript--over forty years later--alerted Roberson to the fact that he had been relating to its material ever since, yielding for him work that "calls across the span of a lifetime." MPH is Roberson's epic, serial road poem, decades in the making, stamped with and guided by the talisman of its title"--from back cover.

Contents:

Mph (1970-1973)

As if i seen enough p. 17

I see people p. 18

Beside two rivers just made one p. 20

'Cause p. 22

By the edge of town p. 24

Between two towns, blue earth and black earth p. 26

They knew their direction p. 27

That long wide arc of approaching p. 29

Bearing and Ground Attitude p. 30

The Pillars p. 32

The cloud dark p. 34

Wall to wall horizon no one in p. 35

You can hypnotize chickens with a white line, and a snake p. 37

Road Ikon p. 38

O'er the Ramparts We Watched p. 40

Skull Breasted Mother of History, Coatlicue p. 41

The Travel Section p. 42

Prairie with Road p. 44

Event Horizon p. 46

You'd say that's not what it's about but p. 47

Rick Drives Us to the Top of New Mexico p. 48

The Motorcycle Crossing p. 51

Road Work

Monad p. 59

Somewhere Out There p. 61

If you do not have the answer this question p. 62

I don't even have to turn around p. 63

Physics of Trajectory p. 64

The Fine Arts Teacher 1970 p. 65

'til you corrected me explicitly I thought p. 66

This journey is madness p. 67

I know what it takes takes you too far p. 68

I see people look at each other and see p. 69

People let me tell you p. 70

I saw her tame money into butterflies p. 71

She told me the night p. 73

Cross country tomorrow p. 74

Father p. 76

The Leaving Behind p. 83

The Speed of Light p. 84

Ice p. 85

I paid the toll take take to open out his road p. 86

We were all dropping p. 87

When I was 75 p. 89

Asks Could He Follow p. 91

The sun on the one hand p. 92

Going west is going up out p. 94

Something wrong and right too far gone p. 95

I ride on the back the map on the back p. 97

Pure p. 99

Mad now he said p. 101

My place is in place where i am p. 102

Objects in the Rearview Mirror p. 103

The met himself in a direction p. 105

Look to the Left ... p. 107

O people i can tell you now p. 109

To tell you p. 111

Once, in the traffic p. 112

A Passing So Fast p. 114

The Motorcycle (Nearing St. Louis) p. 115

Legba's West Back Side p. 117

What is real and what is assisted p. 119

Soñero over the Silent Line p. 120

But here it was back to see p. 122

Don't Bring It in Here p. 123

The Original Deed p. 124

Other Road Poems

... Making Ground p. 131

The Understanding p. 132

Given Way p. 133

Mblemati.txt p. 135

Stepping through I p. 137

Walking p. 139

Half the time afloat p. 141

The birds put inside p. 143

As at the Far Edge of Circling p. 145

The Heavens p. 147.

ISBN:

9780988988583

0988988585

OCLC:

1263259889

Publisher Number:

99989177804