Dark Matter: New Poems
I‘ve had me up my sleeve
I‘ve pulled me from my hat
I’ve planted myself in the audience
as the patsy I dare to decipher my tricks—
safe I can never see through me.
The Magician and The Magician's Assistant--
I‘ve been both for so long . . .
from here on in, all that’s left is the magic.
In this major new book of poems, her seventh, Robin Morgan rewards us with the award-winning mastery we've come to expect from her poetry. Her gaze is unflinching, her craft sharp, her mature voice rich with wry wit, survived pain, and her signature chord: an indomitable celebration of life. This powerful collection contains the now-famous poems Morgan reads in her TED Talk —viewed online more than a million times and translated into 24 languages.
Dark Matter is an unforgettable book.
2018 | ISBN 9781925581430 | Paperback | 210 x 148 mm | 82 pp
Save 25% when you order Dark Matter and Harvesting Darkness. Click here to order.
Table of Contents
III. Grey Matter
No Signs of Struggle
Grey Matter
1. Movement Disorder
2. On Donating My Brain to Science
3. Images
Uniquely Human
Looking on the Bright Side
At the Edge of a Wheatfield
The Ghost Light
Bodily Know
IV. Dark Matter
A Worm of Robins
The Young Artists at Rockwood Music Hall
Trying to Write a Poem at the Very Last Minute
The Excavation
Disclosure
Reading the Bones
This Dark Hour
Disappear
I. Doing the Blood Work
The Magician and the Magician’s Assistant
Barbarina’s Cavatina
Doing the Blood Work
1. The Inheritance
2. Not by Halves
The Fossil of A Young Woman
Ice Dancing
The Contortionists
Kigali, 1994
Compass
II. The New Old Woman
The New Old Woman
Hunger
Bioluminescence
Transmitting Gravity
Giants at the Corner Table
Needlework
Meteor Shower
Final Proof
When poet Robin Morgan found herself facing Parkinson’s disease, she distilled her experiences into these four quietly powerful poems — meditating on age, loss, and the simple power of noticing.
Reviews
Five star review.
Robin Morgan's "magnum opus." Truly her finest work to date––and that's saying something. The poem "This Dark Hour" in Dark Matter is worth the price of this book on its own. Her TED lecture where she read four of these poems was powerful to say the least, but reading them oneself brings the power of these poems home. Can't recommend this enough.—Sara McGuiness, Amazon.com
Five star review.This is one of Morgan’s most reflective poetry. Even if the underpinning subject is “dark” there are luminous shadows amidst the texts. It is a frankly wise and short discourse on the end of matter, pain and joy of living. And yes, political as well in its deepest sense. I frankly recommend its reading and sharing.
—Isel Rivero, Amazon.com
FIVE STARS. This collection read like one long glorious, insightful and playful reflection and celebration of life, love, friendship and death. Read by Morgan as a TED Talk and viewed online more than a million times...I'm not surprised.
—Sally Piper, author, GoodReads
In her new collection, Dark Matter, Robin Morgan explores themes that have been prevalent throughout her life as she details her experiences in ageing and her diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The collection starts with her beautiful poem, The Magician and The Magician’s Assistant where she invites the reader into her thoughts and her sense of self. Much of the collection invites the reader to look at their perceptions of ageing and death and focuses on her love of poetry and words.
..Robin hones her craft through these pages and has said herself that she thinks this is her best published poetry collection to date. She chooses her words with careful thought and explores her ideas passionately. Her love for poetry inspires a beautiful sense of wonder and awe in this poet and ignites a fire in the feminist in us all.
..Dark Matter by Robin Morgan is an absolute masterpiece and should be shared with everyone willing to listen.—Nik Shone, Other Terrain
In Dark Matter, her seventh poetry collection, Morgan cannily exploits poetry’s ability to be both metaphoric and direct. The voice is often conversational and anecdotal, at other times it is layered and allusive. What drives the collection is a deep and passionate intensity, which only a life spent in endless interrogation and interaction with self and world can achieve and sustain.
—Patricia Skyes, Live Encounters