The Long Fault: Poems

In THE LONG FAULT, Jay Rogoff considers how the disasters of human history scar the individual psyche and how our creative acts of art and love help us to resist this damage. The poems explore sacred and secular history, including wars as ancient as Troy and as contemporary as Iraq, and incidents of mass violence from the Middle Ages to modern times. They simultaneously enlist the power of all forms of art as an ally in confronting disaster and helping us proceed. In a great variety of forms, both traditional and experimental, Rogoff's poems meditate on "the long fault" into which we will all tumble. Like Hamlet staring into the eyes of Death, THE LONG FAULT resists the encroaching dark with the imaginative sympathy, strong lyricism, and strange humor that powerful poetry can provide.