Baron Wormser, a master of the persona poem, is well known for his
empathic exploration of possible lives. This fifth collection of poetry
by this fiction writer in a poet's body, includes an examination of his
own life as well.
Mulroney & Others provides glimpses of Wormser's childhood,
adolescence, and adulthood, as well as accounts of Vietnam vets and
draft dodgers, socialites and outcasts. Loyal readers will welcome his
trademark poise, the elegant balance he achieves with understatement
both metrically deft and intellectually intricate. These poems prove
Anaïs Nin's insight that We don't see things as they are, we see them as
we are.
Wormser's invitation to engage ourselves in seeing is irresistible,
especially as he models the process with such impassioned interest. 'I
know, ' everyone is saying at once/To one another and the word-riddled
universe. . . . he writes. His poems tempt us to trade the obscurity of
facile assumption for the powerful illumination of wonder. In Wormser's
words, the universe is irrefutably personal.
Baron Wormser is the author of four previous collections of poetry: The
White Words (Houghton Mifflin, 1983), Good Trembling (Houghton
Mifflin, 1985), Atoms, Soul Music, and Other Poems (Paris Review
Editions, 1989), When (Sarabande Books, 1997), and co-author of
Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
1999). His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of
journals including The Paris Review, Sewanee Review, The New Republic,
Harper's, and Poetry. He has received fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Arts and the John Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He
lives with his wife in Hallowell, Maine.
The particular gift in Wormser's work is in the narrative. . . . He is
poised to record, to expose, to express, not to pounce. The language can
sometimes ambush a reader with wonder, but Wormser never breaks a sweat.
. . . Mulroney & Others is one of those rare books of poetry that will
have resonance in the lives of nearly every reader. . . (he) mixes just
the right amount of cleverness with a smart appreciation for language,
humor, humanity, pain and love.-Ba
