Noise and Stories
Subtitle
Poems
"With a bow to recent masters like Justice, Wright, and even Nemerov, John Morris’s poems explore the uncertain footing of middle age. The characters we meet are clear-eyed, straight-faced, occasionally nonplussed. They’re uncertain of their allegiance to either comfort or anguish. And their ciphering of the debts and credits of their days creates little dramas we can recognize as something like our own. Cars are “rust-colored, late-modeled;” poems “twist into failing origami;” and an old high school yearbook “needs a vacation. It needs a drink.” The lines dissect moments and events as if each implication must be given its due. Sentences surprise and involve us, somehow intuiting their own inevitable ends."
— Richard Terrill
Bio
John Graves Morris earned both his BA (1982) and PhD (1989) in English at Arizona State University.
Praise for this book
John Morris is a poet of great versatility, sensitivity, and perception. He takes a moment from our lives, crystallizes it into forever. This is lovely work.
Rilla Askew Author of "Fire In Beulah" and "Harpsong"
John Graves Morris’ first collection of poems is a work of many years where music and image clock one another for all the surprise and sharp edges that poetic voice admits to–these sometimes elevated and lyric voices are both true and memorable. What a wonderful volume.
Norman Dubie American poet
