5 reasons to pre-order YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS
by Zoey Cole
Five reasons you should pre-order You Must Remember This and then go listen to Michael Bazzett read at Talk of the Stacks on November 18th (see event info below):
- This is dark, funny, insane stuff. After reading “Cyclops,” you’ll wonder why Michael Bazzett wasn’t around in your middle school history classes to explain the dark cave, the sizzling giant eye, and the terrified escape via belly of a sheep. And that knife on the cover of the book? That’s definitely related, just wait until you read the one about humor that’s “deft and cutting/my fingers off one by one.”
- All the disturbed, brilliant images that you won’t find anywhere else: a few of my favorites are the hungover sun, silent ink that whispers about love, a bowl of rain (no, wait, you didn’t get that right the first time: a bowl literally made of raindrops), and a recurring orangutan that may actually be a robot.
- A whole new understanding of the phrase “she wears the pants in the family”: I’m just going to point you immediately to the poem entitled “Manhood.” After reading this one, you’ll think “Did he really just do that?” Then, you’ll read the rest of the collection, and you’ll be so glad that Michael Bazzett decided to write poetry.
- The banter: As an English teacher, Michael Bazzett spends a lot of time with students, and apparently, that’s made him both sarcastic and fun-loving. He gets away with phrases like “how utterly it sucked.” And it seems completely plausible to assume he’s got severe ADD when he goes from a deeply poetic description of the live blood in his lungs to pondering what future archaeologists will think of our society. Then, at the end, it all resolves, and you have to re-read and chuckle, realizing how much sense he’s made.
- Michael Bazzett teaches high school English at The Blake School in Minneapolis. And his students love him. In the words of one student on RateMyTeachers.com, “Unreal teacher. Everyone needs to have him.” Also, he’s a really friendly guy in person. I met him when he came into the Milkweed office two weeks ago. He walked right up to me, shook my hand, and introduced himself as “Mike.” He’s tall for a poet.
Talk of the Stacks with Michael Bazzett
November 18 | 7:00 pm | Hennepin County Library (Pohlad Hall)
300 Nicollet Mall | Minneapolis, 55401
Pre-order You Must Remember This now for only $12 from Milkweed Editions. We’ll get it to you in November.