every possible blue
Published by CW Books, 2012.
In his second collection of poems, Matthew Thorburn celebrates the rhythms and hum of city life, from the hubbub of a Manhattan sidewalk at lunchtime to the break-of-dawn birdsong heard through an open bedroom window in Queens. Woven through with meditations on painters and paintings both real and imagined, Every Possible Blue also plays variations on perhaps the oldest theme of all: searching for, and eventually finding, love.
Read a Few Poems...
"Gravy Boat" in Pool
"Hokkaido Photo" onVerse Daily
"Horse Poetica" on Verse Daily
"Men Swear" on Poetry Daily
Listen to a reading and interview about Every Possible Blue on NPR's The Poet and the Poem, hosted by Grace Cavalieri (click and scroll down).
Read an interview with Serena M. Agusto-Cox on the 32 Poems blog.
In his second collection of poems, Matthew Thorburn celebrates the rhythms and hum of city life, from the hubbub of a Manhattan sidewalk at lunchtime to the break-of-dawn birdsong heard through an open bedroom window in Queens. Woven through with meditations on painters and paintings both real and imagined, Every Possible Blue also plays variations on perhaps the oldest theme of all: searching for, and eventually finding, love.
Read a Few Poems...
"Gravy Boat" in Pool
"Hokkaido Photo" onVerse Daily
"Horse Poetica" on Verse Daily
"Men Swear" on Poetry Daily
Listen to a reading and interview about Every Possible Blue on NPR's The Poet and the Poem, hosted by Grace Cavalieri (click and scroll down).
Read an interview with Serena M. Agusto-Cox on the 32 Poems blog.
Every Possible Blue is available from Powell's Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
and select local booksellers.
Autographed copies available directly from the author via the link at right.
$
18.00
what people are saying about every possible blue
"Saturated with color and light, Thorburn’s second collection celebrates New York with deft, vivacious strokes. Similar to the way a city is always rebuilt, or a painter reworks a canvas, Thorburn's poems pay special attention to the clothing and adornments that change to fit life's varied occasions."
— Publishers' Weekly
"There are anthologies of poems about paintings, but many of Thorburn’s poems are as close to being paintings as poems can be. Every Possible Blue is like a gallery tour led by a charismatic docent-shaman. My advice is to sign up for it."
— Warren D. Woessner, Rain Taxi
"If Fred Astaire could write, it might sound like this: practiced, complex, graceful. Thorburn's grief is here but it is his secret; instead he writes of game changing moments that make him happy.... These are a sequence of anecdotes daring to love again, dreaming in
daylight."
—Grace Cavalieri, The Washington Independent Review of Books
"A love song to New York City and to painting, Every Possible Blue doesn't choose between life and art because Matthew Thorburn's
wise enough to know that the art of life is a life in art. In his exuberant new collection, Thorburn never lets you forget words are his medium, as he stops to reflect on the hurt in 'wound up,' when thinking about the fate of a gift after a divorce, and as later on he can be grateful for the pain that is 'only bread.' Here's what a poetry of happiness can sound like, in poems as 'touched / by light' as Bonnard's paintings, about which he writes. Every Possible Blue is a joy to read.”
—Sharon Dolin
"Whether clean shaven and erudite or broken and besotted, Matthew Thorburn's poems are always luminous, lush and spirited. Their depth brings to mind Jarrell, their playfulness, Stevens. What a rich spectrum of experience, craft and sheer linguistic fun Every Possible Blue provides!"
—Kathy Fagan
— Publishers' Weekly
"There are anthologies of poems about paintings, but many of Thorburn’s poems are as close to being paintings as poems can be. Every Possible Blue is like a gallery tour led by a charismatic docent-shaman. My advice is to sign up for it."
— Warren D. Woessner, Rain Taxi
"If Fred Astaire could write, it might sound like this: practiced, complex, graceful. Thorburn's grief is here but it is his secret; instead he writes of game changing moments that make him happy.... These are a sequence of anecdotes daring to love again, dreaming in
daylight."
—Grace Cavalieri, The Washington Independent Review of Books
"A love song to New York City and to painting, Every Possible Blue doesn't choose between life and art because Matthew Thorburn's
wise enough to know that the art of life is a life in art. In his exuberant new collection, Thorburn never lets you forget words are his medium, as he stops to reflect on the hurt in 'wound up,' when thinking about the fate of a gift after a divorce, and as later on he can be grateful for the pain that is 'only bread.' Here's what a poetry of happiness can sound like, in poems as 'touched / by light' as Bonnard's paintings, about which he writes. Every Possible Blue is a joy to read.”
—Sharon Dolin
"Whether clean shaven and erudite or broken and besotted, Matthew Thorburn's poems are always luminous, lush and spirited. Their depth brings to mind Jarrell, their playfulness, Stevens. What a rich spectrum of experience, craft and sheer linguistic fun Every Possible Blue provides!"
—Kathy Fagan
