Circle / Square

T.J. McLemore

$12.00

Publication Date: September 12th, 2020

Publisher:

Autumn House Press

ISBN:

9781938769665

Pages:

Description

Throughout Circle / Square, T. J. McLemore renders the language of physics and theoretical science into poetry to illuminate the mysterious ways we experience reality. Exploring the complex and at-times dense world of scientific language, MeLemore spins into verse the kind of material many poets might shy away from. Throughout the chapbook, the poet begins from theoretical physics and other realms of science to continue poetry’s endless search to define, explore, and represent the world truthfully through deep attention to language and form. Neutrinos, string theory, thermodynamics, and quantum entanglement become meditations and tools for self-examination as McLemore finds new ways to revel in and represent physical existence. Drawing from highly technical scientific materials, McLemore has crafted poems that are thoughtful, grounding, and expressively charged, leading readers through divine moments of wonder and contemplation.

About the Author

T.J. McLemore is a doctoral student in English literature and environmental humanities at the University of Colorado Boulder, and he served as the poetry editor at The Hopper and Descant. His poems have appeared in New England Review, Crazyhorse, 32 Poems, Adroit Journal, Prairie Schooner, SLICE, Massachusetts Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and others.

Praise for Circle / Square

"T.J. McLemore’s poems combine imagination and music as a single act of knowing. The gift of the ear embodies the discovery — as in all true poetry, and in McLemore’s distinctive way. This writing is alert, and fun to read. For example, here is a line about matter dissolving into the vibration of light, a form of energy that endures, 'humming whatever this song is we all run on, and run to.' I love how the clinching, intellectual turn of 'run' in those two meanings springs from the playful, charged energy of 'humming whatever this song is.'"

— Robert Pinsky, author of At the Foundling Hospital

“What I appreciate about T.J. McLemore’s Circle / Square is how it embodies nonduality: it is both circle and square, both intellectually challenging and emotionally rich, imagistically startling and musically rich. . . . I kept rereading this chapbook for the way it illuminates the physic and metaphysic truths of being human. These are poems that work as proofs, proofs for the equations that hold the universe and our sublime natures together.”
— Gerry LaFemina, author of Vanishing Horizon