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Murderer's Day

"The poems of E.M. Schorb shine calmly even as they buzz with energy; are connaissant with world and yet transcendent of it; make something deeply funny and yet highly sad—given a world and a time and a good mind’s eye. This is the work of a mature intelligence, its ironies unadulterated by cynicism, and its swells informed by understatement. A feisty book; a confident book, and in its own way, a furiously festive one.”

 

—Heather McHugh, Award Citation



"The characteristics of E.M. Schorb's poetry call to mind such words as 'graceful' or 'gracious': words that take as their root the word 'grace.' The opening poem 'Poetry in Motion' illustrates these qualities. It consists of two descriptions: the one of a woman in the present, and the other of the same woman in the past. To the author the woman is totally unchanged. Her similarity to the past astounds him. He seems to have doubts of his sanity, but is saved by the realization that modern physics no longer sees the universe in strictly material terms. Modern science accepts poetry as a possible source of truth. And in a very graceful resolution of the conflict between poetry and science, Schorb makes clear that poetry exists in motion across 'the warp and woof of time,' (that is, across and through human experience) where the microscope and telescope cannot reach. Schorb has a high-spirited sense of humor. He is anything but didactic. His approach to ideas is always tentative, teasing, light, filled with grace in every sense."

—P.B. Newman, Southern Poetry Review



"Schorb has finessed his own way into the deep, and the poems in Murderer's Day will challenge both your mind and your soul. They will also make you laugh with joy at the mind's swift and graceful flight into wit and fancy."


—Dannye Romine Powell, The Charlotte Observer