Blue on Blue Ground

By Aaron Smith and Aaron Smith

Winner of the 2004 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize Blue on Blue Ground is about the body, desire, anxiety, and obsession--how what we want redeems and isolates us (and is sometimes used against us). These poems are artful yet accessible, lyrical yet direct, strange but recognizable. Smith's relentless self-examination, fear, sense of humor, and vulnerability are all laid to bare in crisp, precise language. From lonely observations, bizarre medical fascinations, emotion, loss, and honesty, Blue on Blue Ground constructs its internal and external worlds. The metaphorical city is also a "body," a place of exile and restoration, a symbol of hope, a catalyst for connection. The urban landscape is often the background for the moment or is the moment itself--the world looked at and sorted into words. Though at times dark, there's love to be found. Perhaps it's what drives this collection, colors its observations, and leads it to finally announce: "Someone is putting the world back together." Blue on Blue Ground wants to look at absolutely everything and believes that complete exploration of the physical and mental selves--fears and desires--is the key to moving and being completely alive in the material world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822958880
• ISBN13: 9780822958888
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant

I never thought I could be a fan of poetry but his work is accessible, witty and moving. I highly recommend it. I can't wait for the next one.

Passion + Craft

Smith does what few modern poets accomplish: touching stories within a crafted frame. These poems are layered and poignant. His energy comes off the page. The poem "Keep Him There" is gorgeous and his odes to Brad Pitt and Matt Damon are funny and startling at the same time. Smith is another poet who reassures me that poetry is not dying.

Beautiful

Brilliant. Aaron Smith has written beautifully brutal, wildly funny poetry with the rawness and tenacity of a self performed autopsy; poetry has never been so gorgeously unfearing.

life changing

Reading any of Aarons work is like watching something that you arent supposed to but coming away knowing even more about yourself and humanity...