{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnew-books-in-poetry.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fdorothea-lasky-rome-liveright-2014-AscR5MUy","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Dorothea Lasky, “Rome” (Liveright, 2014)","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/c8d5e6/c8d5e6c0-d9dd-47ac-add3-39d742354593/d201d88f-b152-498a-83dd-270882d15042/poetry1500x1500.png","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"Dorothea Lasky‘s Rome (Liveright, 2014) is a collection that will catch you off guard. Lasky lures the reader in with familiar language and imagery only to have them suddenly realize they’ve been brought to room where the walls wobble and collapse, eternally revealing darker passageways.\n\nShe is undoubtedly a language poet but also one who sees language as a roadblock. The communication is in the sound. Just as with Hemingway, words are merely an entry point to meaning. Stripped of even punctuation, these lines hurl themselves at the reader.\n\nDo not take this economy of language as simplicity. Within it are the layers of desire, grief, betrayal, and rage. Lasky’s speakers embody everything that is human yet alien, familiar and foreign. Emboldened by their own savage humanity, they assert themselves into landscapes and consciousness.\n\nBut this is not easily won– Lasky lets us into her process, revision, and search for obsession. If she cannot lose herself in the poem then she will not offer it up to the world.\n\nWhen at sixty it might hit you\n\nWhat you’ve given up\n\nWhen your sentimental heart\n\nMight let its hair down and see\n\nThe sun for the first time\n\nWhen you pick up this book, read the lines aloud, impose your will on them, and see where they take you.\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/poetry"}