A magnificent book of hope and resolve written out of profound losses, by award-winning poet Mark Wunderlich
God of Nothingness
Poems
- “Wunderlich . . . strikes a note of elegiac unease [in God of Nothingness]. . . . The poem ‘My Night with Jeffrey Dahmer,’ as chilling as its title, owes much of its power to the poet’s ability to orchestrate a suspensefully blended tone of dread and desire.”—Library Journal
I am free from longing to be free; I do as I please,
my money is my own, all the mistakes I make are only my mistakes.
What is it to look at something you made and see the future?
What is it to have someone made by your body, but whose mind
remains just out of reach? I’ll never know. Come here, little rabbit.
Eat these greens. I will pet your cloudy fur with the mind’s hand.
—from “The Son I’ll Never Have”
God of Nothingness is a book for those who have seen death up close or even quietly wished for it. In these poems, honed to a devastating edge, Mark Wunderlich asks: How is it we go on as those around us die? And why go on at all? This collection is a brilliant testament to the human ability to make something tough-minded and resilient out of despair and the inevitability of death drawing near. Some poems are moving elegies addressed to mentors, friends, and family recently gone; some contend with the unasked-for responsibilities of inheritance and the family name; others call forth the understanding of being the end of a genetic line; still others remember a rural midwestern coming-of-age and, chillingly, an encounter with the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Present all the while are the prevailing comforts and wonders found in the natural world, work, and the longing for traditions that seem to be passing from our time. Exquisite in its craft and capaciousness, God of Nothingness is an unflinching journal of solitude and survival.
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About the Author
Credit: Nicholas Kahn
Upcoming Events
VIRTUAL: Mark Wunderlich reading from GOD OF NOTHINGNESS, presented by Bennington College
Date:
EDT
Location:
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4:00 PM Pacific / 6:00 PM Central / 7:00 PM Eastern. Reading + Q&A. On Zoom. Free and open to the public. Register here.
Praise
- “The superb fourth collection from Wunderlich disarms with its directness, humor, and pathos.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
- “God of Nothingness is a folkloric investigation into death and its resounding implications on our humanity and significance.”—The Arkansas International
- "Erotic, folkloric, elegiac, philosophic, aesthetic, lyric, queer and rural and utterly haunted (but without the usual messiness of haunting), Wunderlich transcends downward and takes us with him. . . . I am in love with The God of Nothingness, which is permeated, it turns out, with a majestic somethingness.”—Diane Seuss
- “Mark Wunderlich’s poems are alarmingly wise, lyrically charged, and built out of an almost otherworldly clarity. . . . Wunderlich makes an argument not for beauty but for a clear-eyed resilience. God of Nothingness is a book that is as devastating as it is life-affirming, a weapon that both wounds and saves.”—Ada Limón
