Synopses & Reviews
0° , 0° is where the equator and prime meridian cross, but it is also, in Amit Majmudars poetic cartography, "the one True Cross, the roods wood warped and tacked / pole to pole." Unlikely intersections lie at the heart of Amit Majmudar's first collection of poetry. Mythical, biblical, political, and scientific allusion thrive side by side, inspiring surprise and wonder.
Majmudars training as a medical doctor is clearly at work as he is able to balance poetic forms requiring surgical precision—including the exceedingly difficult ghazal—with warmth and compassion for the world. Majmudar understands suffering on the large scale and the small, whether he is speaking up for the biblical character Job and "answering the whirlwind," or tallying the human cost of war at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Synopsis
0° , 0° is where the equator and prime meridian cross, but it is also, in Amit Majmudars poetic cartography, "the one True Cross, the roods wood warped and tacked / pole to pole." Unlikely intersections lie at the heart of Amit Majmudar's first collection of poetry. Mythical, biblical, political, and scientific allusion thrive side by side, inspiring surprise and wonder.
About the Author
Amit Majmudar is a diagnostic radiologist specializing in nuclear medicine in Columbus, Ohio, where he lives with his wife and twin sons. His poetry has appeared in Poetry, First Things, and TriQuarterly, among other publications. His poem "A Pedestrian" was read on WNYC as part of National Poetry Month, and "By Accident" was selected for The Best American Poetry 2007.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Part One
0°, 0°
Mine
Answers for the Whirlwind
Archimedes Quatrain
Subtle Anatomy
Michael Reminisces About the War
Aggression
Instructions to an Artisan
Part Two
The Glassblowers of Venice
The Rule
M. C. Escher and the Art of Tessellation
Satellite Dishes in the Desert
Merlin
Part Three
The Cherry Blossoms at Walter Reed
Wandering Ghazal
In Praise of Emergency Evacuations
A Pedestrian
Texaco Fugue
Head of a Bengal Tiger
Higher-ups
Letter to the Infantry
Part Four
American Amorobotics, Inc
Matter and Antimatter
Moth-eaten
Tempest Incantation
Distance over Water
Static Electricity
Ogling Naomi
The Disruption
By Accident
Part Five
Riches
Wet Nurse
Twin Gluttons
Patient Histories
The Drain
Elegy for Professor Liviu Librescu
Rites to Allay the Dead
The Miscarriage