The Smoke of Horses

by Charles Rafferty

In this fascinating new collection by longtime poet Charles Rafferty, evocative prose poems insert strange and mysterious twists into otherwise mundane middle-class scenarios. With wonderful intelligence and imagination, these compact, revelatory poems show us what is possible when we jettison accepted devices of thought for methods that are stranger, and much truer. Charles Rafferty is the author of six collections of poetry, one collection of stories, and two poetry chapbooks. He lives in Sandy Hook, CT, where he works at a technology research firm, directs the MFA program at Albertus Magnus College, and teaches in the Westport Writers' Workshop.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2017

About the author

Charles Rafferty is a poet, editor, and director of the MFA program at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut. He graduated from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey with a B.A. in Literature and Language, and later received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas. He has published four books of poetry along with several chapbooks, had his work published in The New Yorker and RATTLE, and in 2009 received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

His barely veiled misogyny is matched only by his overinflation of the mundane. Women are not dampeners of your matchsticks, Rafferty. Your matchstick could hardly ignite a candle.

[Hannah Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite poems and lines: From Grackle - "I have always believed that if I jumped out that window I would turn into grackles before hitting the sidewalk." From Unnoticed - "The anniversary of some future sadness passes every day unnoticed...In every house, there's a dead mouse in the wall that the living mice build their nest beside." Other favorite poems I will read again and again are Carp, Drift, and Quarry.

[Charles M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was unfamiliar with Raferty’s poems . This collection essentially of prose poems was a delight . They are concise , witty , sometimes moving and well crafted