At the End of the Self-Help Rope

Energetic, often wildly humorous, and self-critical, Ed Zahniser's poems tackle the scary work of hashing out inner conundrums and revising habituated but unhelpful self-talk. Humor and pathos share the stage. These poems speak to people working-whether alone, with a friend, counselor or therapist, or in a group setting-to reorient their personal and interpersonal compasses. The highs and lows of emotion, thought, frustration, resolution, and humor between these covers will jumpstart both the general reader and the professional reader. These poems often rhyme in varied schemes with varied metrical patterns. Their language ricochets between the literary and formal and the casual and colloquial. This collection springs from long attention to a range of American poets, from Ezra Pound, confessional poets, New York School poets, and contemporaries such as the late Frank Stanford, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Matthew Rohrer, Lucia Perillo, Dean Young, Maureen Seaton, and Barbara Hamby. Beyond American and British traditions, this book manifests roots in contrarian poetry of ancient China and ecstatic religious poetry of medieval Persia and India. It springs from long attention to a range of American poets, from Ezra Pound, the confessional poets, and New York School poets, through contemporaries.