Rhapsodies

Rhapsodies is the third eBook from poet Jake Spatz, and stands as his strongest work to date. Fusing the passionate utterance of Melody's Fool with the inventive lyricism of Improvisations, this ambitious group of poems reaches a new register entirely. From the hypnotic opening chant "There's a Rat in the Ivory Cellar," each poem speaks in a dialect of images and objects, weaving a picture of the world that brings color, vitality, and freshness in the forefront. The suite "Still Life with Life Life" gives voice to a whole house of objects, with personal utterances by a senile clock, a prophetic mirror, and a fierce bowl of salt, among others. The breezy and contagious "Brooklyn" welcomes the spring with as many budding sentiments as the season has shoots. And the symphonic finale "Scales in a Throwaway Key" is a massive, wild freestyle ode in the voice of negative space—a magnum opus among masterpieces. It's a banquet of a book.