Bonfire of the Verities

By Michael Lieberman

Res ipsa loquitor --the thing speaks for itself--as the lawyers say. But does it? Not in Michael Lieberman's new book of poems, Bonfire of the Verities . What speaks here is doubt and the commitment to cast aside the apparent truths we all accumulate. Those verities are what are tossed onto Lieberman's bonfire: It is here I heap the platitudes I cannot keep. He grounds his struggle precisely: The coordinates of the country of doubt are 29º, 45' N / 95º, 21' W, which are those of Houston, his adopted city. It is an unusual poet who is willing to pare away belief and accept that truths--received or earned--must be discarded as we face the unknowable mystery. In the end what Lieberman wrests from the void is the recognition that there is no ultimate choice but dissolution: This fire burns in me-- it cannot set me free it leaves me ash, not tree. And yet ash is both residue and tree, offering the possibility that dissolution is a kind of redemption.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 193787530X
• ISBN13: 9781937875305
• Release Date: October 2013
• Publisher: Trp: The University Press of Shsu
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.6"