The poems in Instructions between Takeoff and Landing take place in the middle of myriad journeys: tracking the twin Voyager satellites as they vanish into the unknown, reckoning with a troubling national history, looking back at life lived and forward to the life yet to come. Speakers meditate on the death of loved ones and their own mortality, relationships bent and broken, misleading histories at odds with personal stories, faith and doubt, a ubiquitous media culture, and their own origins and hoped-for destinations. Weaving deft transitions in tone from tender to bombastic, apologetic to brash, and humorous to elegiac, this collection asserts the ways in which even now, we strive to contain Whitmanic multitudes within the constantly shifting borders of self. Poems hover in the liminal space between traditional and innovative form, locating there a way to entice the reader to enter while pushing the boundaries of what poetry can do. Amid this collection's formal inventions, poems offer a sustained reading comprehension exam that both encapsulates and interrogates the speaker, the culture, and even the reader. In the context of a nation hinging on the axes of justice, freedom, self-expression, and tragedy, the voices in these poems reflect on how they both shape and are shaped by the invisible forces and inescapable influences that surround us.

Instructions between Takeoff and Landing: poems (Akron Series in Poetry)

Literature & Fiction

Jensen, Charles

Poetry

University Of Akron Press

Poetry. LGBTQIA Studies. Taking the form of "the world's smallest encyclopedia" of American culture, the prose poems in NANOPEDIA explore concepts coined in or corrupted by (or both) America from vantage points that are both deeply personal and politically charged. "Charles Jensen's NANOPEDIA is a lovely book of ironies and experiments about the history of a nation that can't seem to be honest about its history. As is his fashion, Jensen reinvents our idea of what the political poem is and what it can do through an adherence to artifice that seems to wonder what is real. This is a stunning book!"--Jericho Brown "If NANOPEDIA is the smallest American reference, then Charles Jensen is the smallest American reference librarian. In Jensen's book, a prose poem crawls into the shell of a dictionary definition and comes alive there, wandering off to unexpected places from Domestic Terrorism to Online Dating to White Privilege. These tiny poems are part aphorism, part parable, part history, part memoir, part comedy, part tragedy. They are the shards of 'a bomb that detonates inward.'"--Stephanie Lenox "Charles Jensen's second book of poems is brimming with humor and pathos packaged into small prose poems with titles as varying as the material within the poems. These are poems by poet who observes the world, takes it apart, and puts it back together in different forms. What lucky readers we are to witness this mind at work and what a good laugh we might get in the process."--Victoria Chang

Nanopedia

Tinderbox Editions

With wry humor and poignant contemplation, Breakup/Breakdown provides readers with excellent company, whether recalling breakups of their own or simply witnessing the narrative of the book’s hero. In the poem “Disruption,” our speaker advises that, “Love, my friends, should never / be entrusted to the heart, whose job // is to push away the only thing / the world will ever offer it.” In the midst of loss that is both personal and universal, Jensen conjures familiar figures, from literature to film, to offer another dimension of insight on the path from sorrow to empowerment. This chapbook has all the emotional heft of a full-length collection, and every line glistens with truth.-- Mary Biddinger, author of Small Enterprise

Breakup/Breakdown

Five Oaks Press

Movies and memory intersect in this compelling and unconventional memoir from queer writer, film aficionado, and Jeopardy! contestant Charles Jensen.Splice of Life follows Jensen from his upbringing and struggles with sexual awareness in rural Wisconsin to his sexual liberation in college and, finally, to the complex relationships and bizarre coincidences of adulthood. Exploring what it means to be male and queer, each essay splices together Jensen' s lived experiences with his analysis of a single film. Deftly woven, Splice of Life shows us how personal and cultural memory intertwine, as well as how the stories we watch can help us understand the stories we all tell about ourselves.

Splice of Life: A Memoir in 13 Film Genres

LGBTQ+ Books

Biographies & Memoirs

Santa Fe Writer's Project

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jensen, Charles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jensen, Charles

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jensen, Charles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Instructions between Takeoff and Landing: poems (Akron Series in Poetry)

Nanopedia

Breakup/Breakdown

Splice of Life: A Memoir in 13 Film Genres