Tropospheric Clouds gives fragmented images that seem to be dispatched from a larger and elaborate narrative world. The poet is a multiplied character separated from the world. Rather than being presented in the Romantic cringe mysticism, but here the separation of the poet is seen as a cloistering or perhaps a sense of imprisonment by vocation. The poet-as-seer image is cut again when the legitimacy-creating obscurity is saved only by publication. Tropospheric Clouds uses the unseen narrative to show the idea of the poet vocation within the reality of profession.
This book is handbound with a pamphlet stitch using a light rose waxed Irish linen thread. The text pages are laser printed on 24 lb recycled paper. The cover is printed by robot arm using a pink Gelly Roll pen on a 90 lb smooth spruce card stock. This book was made in Milwaukee in an edition of 50.
Michael Begnal’s most recent collections are Ancestor Worship and Future Blues (both Salmon Poetry), and the chapbook The Muddy Banks (Ghost City Press).
Adjunct Press 