Written in Rain

by M.L. Liebler and Roland Harrison

Poetry. M.L.Liebler's NEW & SELECTED POEMS is American poetry's newest entry in the ongoing quest to commit America to the Word. There is enough here to let us know where we are. Liebler is a true historian of the era (our own) that he chronicles. Liebler's stubbornness of intent and his tremendous on-pointedness in relentless defense of the things of the heart make this a very welcome volume -- Richard Tillinghast.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893670090
• ISBN13: 9781893670099
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Tebot Bach
• Length: 188 Pages

Customer Reviews

He got Beats!

M. L. Liebler's Written in the Rain is a beautiful collection of moving and musical poetry sure to rock your socks. Liebler commands a beat that entices you to be rebellious if you are the most prudent. The best two words to describe his poems are "alive" and "kicking." Myself, I enjoyed the first and second part of the anthology, Whispers by the Lawn (I and II) and Breaking the Voodoo. These two parts of the book I feel are the strongest parts because they break you into the feel of Liebler's poems and they keep you thinking throughout the rest of the book. The other parts have their strengths also, but I simply enjoyed the sick rawness of the first two. Plus, all my favorites are in the first two sections. My absolute favorite is In My Spring which alludes to a sadness and regret of the loss of youth and the tiny immeasurable things that you loved then. In this regret, it is catalyzed to rapture because he remembers that there are still so many things left to love and still so much more time to do it, and not too late, just at the end of his woeful tirade. "I may never, again, pluck simple berries/ Taste backyard mud/ Stick my shoes in fresh rain water/ Drag them across laundryroom tiles." This eventually leads into the realization that yes, I am grown up and it is no longer appropriate to carry on like a child, but I still remember and that gives me hope. I love how Liebler is a ranting lover of the arts and how he shows it through his poems about Woodstock, the lost love generation, and drug use. He encompasses his entire being into this book: going through childhood, the gangliness of adolescence, rebellion, art, love, beauty, the union workers, America, Vietnam, and so much more. If you like jazz or art or poetry, or even if you don't, you will enjoy this volume simply because you can't not like it. It has an infectious beat that will keep you reading page after page.

Liebler's poetry brings out the magic

Having heard M. L. Liebler read and perform his poetry with his Magic Poetry Band, it is hard to get his performing beat out of your head when you read, Written in the Rain. The poems in Written on the Rain are pure hard hat and lunch pail examples of the American working population. I love the poem Allan Ginsberg's Dead. It speaks to the heart of Liebler's poetry. A man who worked, loved and died without any recognition, but is the backbone of America's success. A Bag of Catsup, And I Ain't Never Going to see Bobby Rush No More and Bass Beat Blues are all poems that show the twenty-year journey Liebler has taken through life and with his poetry. His topics include Vietnam, Unions, Baseball and Christ. A must read for those of you with the Midwest in your blood.