Michael Schmeltzer's Empire of Surrender asks us to look, to feel-deep in the guts-the vibrating aftershocks of war. Each poem powerfully speaks to the ache of what it means to witness war, especially at a young age. Full of visceral lyricism and tender epistolaries, Schmeltzer dives into the intimate depths of war, violence, familial history, empathy, and lineage. This is a book that is not afraid to ask: how and why do we hurt each other? What is lost in such acts of cruelty? And how can we cling to kindness as resistance? In this complexity, Empire of Surrender returns us to the heart: "with each clang I hear the heart//quiet a bit more. In the great war I become cake." -Jane Wong, author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James Books) "We have misplaced our gentleness," writes Michael Schmeltzer in his stunning collection, Empire of Surrender, where he brilliantly weaves tenderness, vulnerability, and love into a realm of war and brutality. Rooted in history and family, these poems do not hold back, fearless and poignant, they ache to be read more than once-"We are hostage to sorrow./Lay down. Rest your head./We can be each other's pillow." Schmeltzer is a voice I need and the world needs. I can't remember the last time I have been so taken by a collection; Michael Schmeltzer has written the best poems of his life, make no mistake, this book will open you in the very best ways. -Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press) In these harrowing poems, Michael Schmeltzer meditates on the failures of empire, on war and cruelty, on the fragility of goodness. This book is steeped in brutality and horror, yet the voice that speaks these poems is above all humane, tender, filled with wonder. "What weapon," Schmeltzer asks, considering the sharpness of axes, "can be made of me?" It is a complex question in a world that overwhelms anyone who imagines the end of violence as "pushing a pin back into a grenade." At the same time, it elevates the power of our words, rendering them urgent and vital. This is an important book for our age of war and empire, one that discovers in the individual consciousness both truth and the potential for good. -Kevin Prufer, author of The Art of Fiction (Four Way Books)

Empire of Surrender

Literature & Fiction

Schmeltzer, Michael

Poetry

Wandering Aengus Press

Blood Song is the first full-length collection by poet Michael Schmeltzer. Praise for Blood Song: There is a radical nostalgia at the heart of Blood Song, a nostalgia that recovers the wounds of experience and brings it to a rich, imaginative culmination. In this way, the book’s title is profoundly apt: on the one hand, Michael Schmeltzer’s poems are about blood and the tragic consciousness that is the result of our being in time; on the other hand, the poems are about song, the reconciling artfulness that is the source of the best poetry. As one of Schmeltzer’s canny speakers says, "I know / better. I’m no better." Equally unsettling and ravishing, Blood Song is a terrific debut. — Rick Barot author of Chord In Michael Schmeltzer's Blood Song we are confronted with the thrumming and violent fact of the body's music. From the haunting image of a father's wounded stomach, the metamorphosis of hornets into syringes, and the consolation passed to a grieving parent, we emerge from the book able to name our ghosts. Schmeltzer's poems are haunting love songs sung to children before sleep in the face of all the world's calamities. Poem after poem of this startling debut is filled with a tenderness capable of turning us to tinder.— Oliver de la Paz author of Post Subject: A Fable Blood Song is a perfect title for Michael Schmeltzer’s powerful first book. Blood spills out of a man’s slashed belly "like an open cocoon." Blood ties family together, for good or ill. "If you turn tragedy into story / you can survive it" sounds like a prayer, but the tongue can’t be trusted, words slip from one to another: "scream" to "squirm," "insect" to "inflict," "hear and know" to "here and now." Familiar consolations fail: "How swiftly music / turns to stench; the things we cherish / how quickly they fly out of reach." And: "Not every movement is dance, / not everything swallowed sustenance." Images of salvation quickly become something else—a child freed from a closet’s darkness sees "the bright blue throb of blue sky / with one cloud / marring it, / a dead dove / in the mouth of sky." It is no small thing, then, when the speaker looks around himself and says, "None of us are dead yet." This is a vision of what it is to be human that doesn’t flinch from the hardest truths of what that includes: violence and rage and pain, but also tenderness and humor, innocence as well as experience. The poems themselves are evidence of the hard-won pleasures of making something of all that: making work, making love, making a family, making a meaningful life. — Sharon Bryan author of Sharp Stars In Blood Song, elegy continually resurrects the shadows, echoes, and misplaced memories of loss. Here, clouds cross the sky like a funeral procession, words brighten in the mouth, and children both bless and burn the innocence that most resembles them. Story is what we make of our survival, Schmeltzer tells us—we who see our sorrows hatching in each line. We who set fire to the nest as if the light we see could save us. — Traci Brimhall author of Our Lady of the Ruins Schmeltzer’s poems wonder at the world as they grasp for the sacred, which may or may not be discovered. As the speaker states in Elegy/Elk River, "I’ve been here most of my life // and am no less lost." A keen-eyed biography boring into the cruelties we endure and inflict upon each other and ourselves, Blood Song sings with vibrant imagery and euphonic music. A familial vein interweaves these poems which stir us to wonder, what darknesses do we inherit as we hum along in our "minor key of existence?"— Matt Rasmussen author of Black Aperture

Blood Song

Two Sylvias Press

Briefly describes the history of the city, discusses the local economy and cultural resources, and looks back on Expo 74

Spokane: The City and the People

History

Americas

Farcountry Pr

Spokane: A City for Living

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

Books by Schmeltzer, Michael