"Far-From-Equilibrium Conditions," Michael Lieberman's fifth collection of poems, struggles to find meaning in a world unmoored by turmoil and scientific discovery. In one poem, a speaker notes, "I will be assigned as nothing" and then implores that "it be a significant nothing." Lieberman is one of our most gifted poets whose preoccupation with love and desire create a gravity that is its own meaning in our topsy-turvy universe. Many of these poems are set in Lieberman's Houston neighborhood though they move far afield as they search for a coherent vision of the world.
"Far-From-Equilibrium Conditions," Michael Lieberman's fifth collection of poems, struggles to find meaning in a world unmoored by turmoil and scienti...
Bill Morgan had everything--or at least he did until, as chair of the board of Travis College of Medicine, he severed a seventy-year relationship between the College and its principle teaching hospital and touched off a blood feud between them. He and Dean Dan Maffit provoke a struggle with the hospital's board chair, Jimmie Rutherford, and its CEO and ex-Israeli operative, Sandy Wechsler, in which the two institutions vie for prestige and dominance and for the physicians who serve them. We follow Morgan's fate in the ensuing conflict as his ambitions bring him face to face with his inner...
Bill Morgan had everything--or at least he did until, as chair of the board of Travis College of Medicine, he severed a seventy-year relationship betw...
"Res ipsa loquitor"--the thing speaks for itself--as the lawyers say. But does it? Not in Michael Lieberman's new book of poems, "Bonfire of the Verities." What speaks here is doubt and the commitment to cast aside the apparent truths we all accumulate. Those verities are what are tossed onto Lieberman's bonfire: It is here I heap the platitudes I cannot keep. He grounds his struggle precisely: The coordinates of the country of doubt are 29, 45' N / 95, 21' W, which are those of Houston, his adopted city. It is an unusual poet who is willing to pare away...
"Res ipsa loquitor"--the thing speaks for itself--as the lawyers say. But does it? Not in Michael Lieberman's new book of poems, "Bonfire of the Ve...
"The Lobsterman's Daughter" chronicles murder and deceit in five generations of a Maine family, the Markhams. The story's narrator, Henrietta Markham, is a recent Harvard graduate, who submits an early version as her honors thesis. She tells the tale in her own voice and the conjured voices of her relatives, both living and dead. After graduation, in Barcelona she faces her own deceit in omitting her sins from the story and adds a journal that documents her bizarre attempts at expiation and atonement. Markham sends the new version back to her advisor and asks that it be published as her final...
"The Lobsterman's Daughter" chronicles murder and deceit in five generations of a Maine family, the Markhams. The story's narrator, Henrietta Markham,...
In this savage yet beautiful book length poem Michael Lieberman captures the rage of men in modern society. He reimagines the characters of Homer's Iliad, recasts them, and sets them in conflict in today's Houston. Unflinching is its descriptions of violence, The Houstiliad implicitly contrasts the rage of Homer's Achilles which was specific and focused with the free-floating rage of contemporary men. Though unsparing in its descriptions, Lieberman's portrait is leavened by lovely lyric passages, reflection, and humor. For those who care about the complicated role of men in modern society...
In this savage yet beautiful book length poem Michael Lieberman captures the rage of men in modern society. He reimagines the characters of Homer's Il...
