As Is
Selected Poems of Joseph Dorazio
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Marché aux Puces
(Flea Market)
You don’t bargain
for the itch to scratch
—it comes attached,
the way the past
comes hitched
to the present.
Don’t resent it.
The oldfangled
is still of use: reach
inside your purse,
buy it with change
that’s loose.
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About the Book
Along with previously selected works, prize-winning poet Joseph Dorazio presents twenty-six new poems in As Is, a unique collection that explores the wide spectrum of the human experience, from the search for vintage treasures to archeological myths tied to global warming.
Dorazio examines the allure, if not outright addiction, of one of his favorite pastimes—scavenging flea markets and vintage junk shops. Here, he searches for something we may not know exists—a kind of poetic and personal archaeological dig through the detritus of the past.
In addition, this volume also includes twenty-six selected poems from Dorazio’s most recent collection, Remains to Be Seen, a finalist in Bright Hill Press’ 2010 Chapbook Contest. These poems pay homage to the artistry of Ogden Nash and Kay Ryan with a miniaturist-style that is at once whimsical and iconoclastic, with many surprises in wit, rhyme, and subtle insight.
Set against an exotic backdrop of ancient Mesoamerican mythologies, Dorazio’s selections from Poems of the Fifth Sun examine global warming, hinting at uncanny parallels among Aztec, Mayan, and other Native American predictions of world cataclysmic change and contemporary climate science.
Intense and ambitious, As Is presents powerful imagery combined with a keen insight into our quest for connection and meaning.
About the Author
Joseph Dorazio is a prize-winning poet whose poems have appeared in numerous print and online literary magazines, including The Spoon River Poetry Review, Boston University’s Clarion Journal, Oberon Review, Pedestal Magazine, Lalitamba, Turk’s Head Review, The Maynard, Sleet Magazine, Poiesis, Nerve Cowboy, Philadelphia Poets, Concise Delight, Chest: The Journal of American College of Chest Physicians, Apiary Magazine, Avocet, The Found Poetry Project, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, Big Hammer, Mad Poets Review, and elsewhere. His first collection of poems, Poems of the Fifth Sun, was a finalist in Gertrude Press’s 2009 Poetry Chapbook Competition, and in 2010, Remains to Be Seen was a finalist in Bright Hill Press’s Poetry Chapbook Competition.
Mr. Dorazio lives and writes in Wayne, Pennsylvania.