Illocality
(revised edition)

by Joseph Massey

“A Massey poem
is a revelation of place.”
—Steph Burt, The New York Times

Back in print in this new, revised edition featuring pieces that did not appear in the original, Joseph Massey's Illocality is a revelation of season and setting. In an ironic turn against the collection's title, his poems are all about place, all about the immediacy of the moment. His poems focus on details as small as, “A diseased shrub // [absorbing] / the leftover glow” to bring us a rendering of the beautiful chaos around us which reflects a chaos within. His work has been called a “poetry of the environment,” and indeed, while “December / reverberates with decay,” in the end the speaker lives life “condensed. . . to forsythia's / rhythm.”

ROUTE 31

Yellow center-line
split with roadkill.

First day of summer—I’ve got my omen—

the clouds are hollow, roving
above a parking lot.

Each strip mall pennant blurred.

So much metal
shoving sun

the sun shoves back.

Other Hollyridge Press books by Joseph Massey:  Present Conditions (a chapbook)