{"id":13492,"date":"2020-01-31T08:59:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T13:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/?p=13492"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:57:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:57:43","slug":"andrew-mertons-poetry-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/31\/andrew-mertons-poetry-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Merton’s Poetry Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poet Andrew Merton answers questions about his Accents Publishing collections.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tell us the story of your Accents Publishing books.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early in 2011 Katerina published four of my poems in Bigger Than They Appear: Anthology of Very Short Poems. <\/em>Emboldened, I sent her the manuscript of what would become my first book, Evidence that We Are Descended from Chairs.\u00a0 <\/em>We corresponded for several months, she saying she liked the manuscript but was not sure she was in a position to publish it.\u00a0 Then, on May 12, my 67th<\/sup> birthday, she called and said it was a go.\u00a0 That remains the best birthday present I have ever received.\u00a0 Accents has since published my second and third books of poems: Lost and Found <\/em>(2016) and Final Exam <\/em>(2019).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you still like them? Why or why not?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I like them all.\u00a0 The first one retains a special place in my heart because 1) My colleague and mentor Charles Simic generously wrote the foreword and 2) although previously I had published poems in journals, I did not fully identify as a poet until Chairs <\/em>was out there in the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is the highest praise you\u2019ve received for your published books?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New Hampshire Writers\u2019 Project named it their outstanding book of poetry for the years 2012-2013.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What didn\u2019t make it in the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lots of really bad poems.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there a poem from the book you\u2019d like to share with the readers of the Accents blog?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why I Left The Poetry Reading Early<\/u><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wanted to applaud<\/p>\n

after the very first poem,<\/p>\n

in which the famous poet<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

revealed the secrets of the universe<\/p>\n

and the human soul<\/p>\n

with no more effort than a shrug.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The second poem put the first to shame.<\/p>\n

I was forced to restrain myself<\/p>\n

by gripping the edges of my chair<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and sitting on my thumbs.<\/p>\n

Soon it took all my resolve<\/p>\n

to keep from shouting “Bravo”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

after nearly every line.<\/p>\n

Five more minutes of this<\/p>\n

and nothing would have stopped me<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

from rising, unbidden,<\/p>\n

and burbling superlatives.<\/p>\n

So I left.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I tiptoed down the hall<\/p>\n

I thought I heard the famous poet say:<\/p>\n

“Now we can really begin.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you arrive at the title?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many years ago\u2014just as I was getting serious about writing poetry\u2014Mark Strand, then at the peak of his fame as a poet, gave reading at UNH, where I taught, that blew me away.\u00a0 The idea for the poem occurred to me as I listened to him read.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite Accents Publishing book (other than yours) and if so, which one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Brief Natural History of an American Girl <\/em>by Sarah Freligh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What would you like to see Accents do going forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Accents continues to evolve as it has over its first decade I\u2019ll be very happy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are you working on now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

More poems. (Okay, my most recent book has a kind of elegiac title, Final Exam,<\/em> but who knows, maybe I\u2019ve got another one left in me.\u00a0 Possible title: Post Doc.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Share a poem, or at least a sentence from your new writing.<\/p>\n

This one appeared in the American Journal of Nursing, <\/em>September, 2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Transcendence<\/u><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

It comes every month or so<\/p>\n

while I am shaving<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

or peeling a potato<\/p>\n

or watching a woodpecker<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

hammer away at an old dead pine:<\/p>\n

shimmering blues, greens, yellows,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

a rainbow effect<\/p>\n

suffusing whatever is before me<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

with an otherworldly aura.<\/p>\n

Doctors say these episodes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

are manifestations of migraine.<\/p>\n

The bird and I know better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poet Andrew Merton answers questions about his Accents Publishing collections.\u00a0   Tell us the story of your Accents Publishing books. Early in 2011 Katerina published four of my poems in Bigger Than They Appear: Anthology of Very Short Poems. Emboldened, I sent her the manuscript of what would become my first book, Evidence that We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[28,103,104,637,411],"class_list":["post-13492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","tag-accents-publishing","tag-andrew-merton","tag-evidence-that-we-are-descended-from-chairs","tag-final-exam","tag-lost-and-found"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13494,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13492\/revisions\/13494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}