Consider the Rooster
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST POETRY COLLECTIONS OF 2024 BY LIT HUB AND ELECTRIC LITERATURE
FINALIST FOR THE 2024 NBCC AWARD IN POETRY
FINALIST FOR THE 2025 CLMP FIRECRACKER AWARD IN POETRY
Consider the Rooster serves as an ode to a rooster’s crow, a catalyst for awakening, both literally and figuratively.
Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic, the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by police, and the resulting upsurge in reactionary right-wing militia violence, a neighbor in Kalamazoo, Michigan threatens to call the police after discovering the author’s pet rooster. The rooster sounds the alarm and our author wakes to revolutionary transformation. An ecological consciousness embedded in these verses invites readers to acknowledge their place in a web of relations. Oliver Baez Bendorf’s voice resounds through liminal spaces, at dusk and dawn, across personal meditations and wider cultural awakenings to form a collection overflowing with freedom, rebellion, mischief, and song.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The innovative and ecologically minded third collection from Bendorf (Advantages of Being Evergreen) finds solace in the connections between the human and nonhuman world, centering and celebrating transformation. Many poems assume perspectives beyond the human, as in "What Is a Field?" which asks, "is it a network for stars to enjoy" or "is it a complete cloud system/ full of muscle." In a poem relaying the story of a neutron star unseen by astronomers for 32 years before its bright reappearance as a supernova, Bendorf reflects on the idea of gender as a journey rather than a destination, "I stood there squinting/ into the heavens thinking if ‘star' can also be ‘dust cloud' or ‘nebula'/ or ‘black hole' then surely gender is far stranger than we've imagined/ and much more beautiful, unfurling over decades, a phenomenon." Other poems highlight the power of Bendorf's observational writing: "I like to look at what you look at./ Maybe I am looking for a future." Hopeful and surprising, this inviting volume soars.
