Inquest

"A blend of the low-rent sociology of Raymond Carver with the quirky imagination of Richard Brautigan."-Billy Collins

Michael McGriff's book-length poem Inquest is an oblique ode to Pablo Neruda's posthumous masterpiece The Book of Questions. Each sentence is rendered as an unanswerable query, be that a consideration of poverty, aesthetics, place, Ezra Pound's Chinese translations, the absurdity of everyday life, the exhumed body of Pablo Neruda, or the sanctity of common objects. Deeply surreal and humane, this collection centers unknowing and wonder as twin forces central to self-articulation, social witnessing, and survival.

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