The Origins of Tragedy & Other Poems

Kenneth Rosen’s poems are, at turns, idyllic, comic, conciliatory, passionate. He finds his imagery in nature, in history and literature, in contemporary political discourse and in mythology. He finds a thread with artists from the past who like the poet himself, perpetually seek to make sense of the turmoil of life. In this, his seventh collection, Rosen’s diverse subjects—childhood, sex, politics and music–illustrate the full breadth of his poetic vision.

Kenneth Rosen was born in Boston, and has lived in Maine since 1965. He recently taught at the American University in Bulgaria, and as a Fulbright professor at Sofia University. Whole Horse, his first collection, was selected for Richard Howard’s Braziller Poetry Series. Others are The Hebrew Lion, Black Leaves, Longfellow Square, Reptile Mind, No Snake, No Paradise, and The Origins of Tragedy. He founded the Stonecoast Writers’ Conference in 1981, and directed it for ten years.

The Cold That Owns Us

Why so sore, throat? I did nothing bad to you:
No kisses or cigars, no second-hand smoke.
Do I detect an up-and-coming disgrace
with fate? Why is life such a rough
Patch of overexcited chemicals in a bag of skin
So beautiful and yet so barely adequate

Every piece of the puzzle, ankles, knees, throat,
Not to mention the heart or core, sooner
Or later, in surrender or revolt? In the end we return
To the stars that made us, and to the cold
That owns us, and irresistibly fall like motes
From fortune and men’s eyes.

Rosen is at it again, at it still—“a life of appetite and anger, whittled / to this unintelligible, corpulent point” is one projection of what he’s at—but he’s hardly still (if he ever was); so much farther along the Via Negativa now, he’s gained a purchase on pursuit; who else would have the authority to ask, “watching the night dissolve—how could it all be nothing?” Feasting on this copious poetry of and for the unbridled imagination, we neither need nor know the other kind.
— Richard Howard

Ken Rosen writes muscular, noisy poems that send the reader careening down the page. They are also engaged with the world and the very palpability of life, as well as being rich in emotional commitment. And they are a pleasure to read: packed with surprises, humor and an exact control of language. Rosen is a master.
— Stephen Dobyns

Alive and full of surprises, Kenneth Rosen’s poetry is like no one else’s. Tender, genuine, bawdy, ironic and seriocomic, he has the heart of a lyric poet, the mind of a philosopher, the complex soul of a clown. If there is such a thing as “outside” poetry, Rosen dares to write it. He is an American original, and his new book, The Origins of Tragedy, is one of his best.
— Elizabeth Spires

April 2003
98 pp
Trade paper – 6 X 9.50
$14
978-0-9707186-6-2