Sweep

By David Abel

Sweep is not a long poem or a series of short poems but a log of practice, determined / to find a structure to inhabit to bits. The form's generosity lets the bits live, passes them along, unforeseeable, irregular, and ordinary. It tells us what it is as it goes: The Encyclopedia of Unfinished Business. But also, A library is a cemetery in which every grave has a voice, and can speak. In this openwork, isolate moments float in silence, cottonwood-fluff light, carried together by a wandering ground bass. Did I say silence? Made of words: no single poems but a noncount poetry, including even a certain unmodified noun. This notation can be laugh-out-loud funny-- Big 12 defense a sieve? That's grudge talk.-- or gently devastating-- Everyone leads three simultaneous lives: / their hidden work, their death, and their disguise.-- or both at once.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1946104698
• ISBN13: 9781946104694
• Release Date: May 2026
• Publisher: Chax Press
• Length: 220 Pages