Work samples
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All the Rest is Silence / Newest Poems
Just click on the image above and a book length collection of my newest poems will appear. And you needn't trifle with anything more in this long portfolio. After all, 56 poems are quite enough!
But, you ask . . . why is there so much other material clogging up this portfolio? Well, that's an easy one: there was a ton of effort expended nearly a decade ago in the creation of this presentation. I've left these earlier pieces extant because they serve as a useful Internet archive of past writing. Feel free to wander through 'em, if the spirit moves you.
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Famous - Cover SpreadAbout FAMOUS (Winner of the 2010 Harriss Poetry Prize): "A 'tour de force' . . . these poems are outstanding and moving, crafted in order to reward us with new senses of perspective – as only exceptional poetry can do. Just twice before, in the many times I’ve judged poetry contests, has a poet’s work stood out as strongly as Sager’s. One of those winners is now a major American poet.” (Dick Allen, Connecticut Poet Laureate) -- THE FULL TEXT APPEARS IN THE PROJECTS SECTION.
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THE INDULGENCE OF ICARUS -- A timely arrival in this political season!Poetry: THE INDULGENCE OF ICARUS -- Is the shadow gliding up against the sun that of Icarus, denuded of his feathers, or that of Danton, despoiled of his head? Is it the archetypal 20th century despot, a demagogue dictating to the masses, “beguiling the chambermaid, the tailor”. . . ? Or a radical 21st century bully, a con man strapping the casement of feathers to his shoulders, throwing his glove at the foot of the heavens “until we fire our torches foamed of dreams and fan out pitchforked into the innocent street”. . . ? -- THE FULL TEXT APPEARS IN THE PROJECTS SECTION.
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200 Takes - A fiction in divers partsFiction: 200 TAKES -- Sometimes I sit down at my keyboard and Hoby Blue Banks takes over. Or, as in this case, Bradford Kantor. This voice, that voice, you never can tell. Sometimes I delight in vague and duplicitous attributions. As do so many. Sitting in this library, I am steeped in, if nothing else, deceptive literary traditions. -- THE FULL TEXT APPEARS IN THE PROJECTS SECTION.
About Bruce
In the first person: I had the enormous good fortune to win the 2014 William Matthews Poetry Prize, selected by Billy Collins. Past awards include the Harriss Poetry Prize, with Dick Allen serving as judge and begetter of its splendid (though, I fear, unwarranted) introduction, and the Artscape Literary Arts Award in poetry, chosen by William Stafford, another generous soul. Collins, Allen, Stafford - poets laureate all; is this the basis for a new conspiracy theory? Maryland State… more
Welcome to my world!
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The infamous Man Cave whence cometh these Baker scribblingsABOUT BOOKS & E-BOOKS: A brief, digestible essay in eight consecutive captions >>>
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Library Corner.jpgHere's a notion for you. You cannot hold a road in your hand. Instead, you experience a road only as it comes at you, as you walk or drive it, and it presents you, in turn, only with what is directly in front of you, and nothing else; for what has fallen behind is gone, has disappeared, and what is ahead, what pre-exists, cannot be seen until you arrive. >>>
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Some Furriners.jpgIn this way, an e-book is something like a road, existing forever in "the present," the present only, on the present page and only the present -- and we don't need or make libraries for them: e-books make their own libraries in the clouds. In the Cloud. >>>
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I Dream of Jeannie.jpgAs for real books? Well, real books are quite different. Of course. They require space. So there, friend, is the heart of the notion: a real book makes past, present and future all equally accessible to you, and at all times, depending simply on where your fingers fall. The map is yours to command, the road yours to direct. >>>
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From the Poetry Section.jpgIt is you who rule the ideas in a tangible, a real, a physical book. In an e-book, though, they manage you. Have you noticed? In an e-book you live only in the rolling unmappable present, palpably adrift, with a limited concept of the space you superintend. >>>
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Thomasiana.jpgIt is, perhaps, for this reason -- our longing to anchor in the physical -- that libraries provide us with such warmth and pleasure. They provide us with a sense of place. >>>
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Audenalia.jpgThe road provides us with a sense of movement. >>>
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Library Classics.jpgThe library with a sense that we have arrived. <<<
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Famous.jpg
Famous (Older Poems, Not Grown Awful Quite Yet)
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Famous - Artwork (front & back cover spread)This is just the cover, of course. The generous introduction follows (4 brief pages); it was written by Poet Laureate Dick Allen. The icon to the far right contains the entirety of the text.
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Famous - Introduction - page 1 of 4
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Famous - Introduction - page 2 of 4
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Famous - Introduction - page 3 of 4
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Famous - Introduction - page 4 of 4
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Famous - Entire BookThis is the proof from which the book was published. Sometimes we wince at our older poems, but I suspect that a couple of these pieces are holding up tolerably well. Or "tollible well," as my great granddaddy would have said. If he had come from someplace a little closer than Budapest.
Hoby Blue Banks (Semi-Hilarious Short Stories)
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Hoby Cover Spread -- CLICK ON THIS COVER to read some FUNKY DAMNED BLURBS!Cover illustration: Detail from "Alone at the End of the World," Jen Sager, oil painting
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HOBY BLUE BANKS - Interior of the Book.pdfThis document is the whole of Hoby, minus the cover, if you're inclined to sit and read a bit. Best with a dark beer and a vintage cigar. BETTER WHEN VIEWED IN 2-PAGE SPREADS, if you can figure out how to do it. If not, just pretend. Thing is, I damn well double dare you not to laugh at something or other in here. Even if it's just my stupidity. If you're easily offended, you can throw a brick at your computer monitor. This book calls it the way it is, so don't say I didn't warn ya. Truth! Y'all come back now, hear?
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Hoby 1.png
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Hoby 2.png
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Hoby 3.png
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Hoby 4.png
How to Write a Poem (Are You A Writer? Bet You'll Laugh.)
But a “must read” for any poet.
Depending on your definition of “must.”
And look how hard you’ve been
working. Does the laborer not pause
under the midday sun for a sip of water?
The soldier beguile the hours of bivouac
rolling coffin nails? Who are you
to deny yourself the common comforts
the body demands? And besides,
maybe you have your poem already.
Do you recognize yourself here?
Here’s where the might and majesty
of the language will step in, married
in the near night under your little
gooseneck writer’s lamp. Or maybe
not. Maybe the might and majesty
of the language are currently in
the employ of some other poet,
likewise desperate to turn a bright sheet
of foolscap into something deathless
and deep, and despair begins to set in.
Turn your back to it, sugar booger.
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How to Write a Poem - Cover SpreadImproper Lady and Fly Do Lunch: Computer illustration by Jen Sager [CLICK THE PIC to view the covers full size. Worth it!]
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How to Write a Poem - Table of Contents
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How to Write a Poem - Intro Spread
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How to Write a Poem - Random Spread 1
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How to Write a Poem - Random Spread 2"The spaces between the keys" -- As a courtesy to your imagination, it might help to look at your keyboard layout as you read this.
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How to Write a Poem - Random Spread 3"Sometimes my mistress shows up at poetry readings" -- Never had more fun reading a poem to a large group (one where a lot of the people know each other) than I had with this one.
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How to Write a Poem - Random Spread 4"The Greatest Poem Ever Written" -- What would such a poem look like? Who would have written it? How would it be received today? Would it paint its face?
The Indulgence of Icarus (An Atypical Lyric)
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Screen Shot 2016-12-23 at 3.53.45 PMA couple of days after its release, Icarus surpasses Paradise Lost as Amazon's #1 BOOK of epic poetry? Really? John Milton joins with me in chortling over Amazon's amazingly dense and frequently hilarious analytics.
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THE INDULGENCE OF ICARUS -- A timely arrival in this political season!Is the shadow gliding up against the sun that of Icarus, denuded of his feathers, or that of Danton, despoiled of his head? Is it the archetypal 20th century despot, a demagogue dictating to the masses, “beguiling the chambermaid, the tailor”. . . ? Or a radical 21st century bully, a con man strapping the casement of feathers to his shoulders, throwing his glove at the foot of the heavens “until we fire our torches foamed of dreams and fan out pitchforked into the innocent street”. . . ?
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THE INDULGENCE OF ICARUS -- An uncommon hatchery for a poem, much less a lyric book-length meditation by turns soaring and repining – a tour through the fascist mind, through the pride and insecurity that grind at its foundations.This is the full text of the official final publisher's proof in glorious PDF spreads. 100% ABSOLUTELY FREE pixels, the entire book, all yours for the clicking. Physical book available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Or reach out to the publisher at www.echopointbooks.com/our-titles. Or just call me, I'll probably give you one out of sheer gratitude. They sent me, like, twenty copies.
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Icarus Sample 1 - (a random spread of 2 pages)
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Icarus Sample 2 - (a random spread of 2 pages)
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Icarus Sample 3 - (a random spread of 2 pages)
The Song Thief (Most Recent Poems)
Last Prayer at Steel Pier (A Chapbook In The Making)
There is a reason your eye stopped here.
You know what it was famous for.
Always there was someone praying.
And somewhere, far back in the crowd,
a different prayer, a secret prayer.
There is a reason your eye stopped here.
What is it that you’re praying for?
I Was Big For My Age (An Early Short Story)
One of the first short stories I ever wrote. I'm still vaguely fond of it. Perhaps because of its poetic opening image.
200 Takes (Excerpts From A Long, Orotund, Ambiguous Novel)
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200 Takes - A fiction in divers parts200 TAKES -- Unfinished novel, but quite a few of the chapters stand, as written, on their own two gnarly feet, not so much asocial as simply disinterested in their neighboring chapters. These whole-within-themselves slabs of writing beef I have lavishly PDF'd, all for your delectation. So if you've pushed your way through this site, this presentation of comestibles, here's a penultimate dish for you. Here be hopes you find it tasty.
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200 Takes - Foreword - 1st pageOpen the whole document to read on . . . .
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Two Hundred Takes - Baker Portfolio ExcerptsA multitude of middle (perhaps middling) chapters mercifully excised so that you can move through this a quantum more swiftly. Deletions of no import, though: what appears here stands on its own. Those few poems curtsying within some of these pages -- especially the Bukowsiki forgery -- have long since been edited. Hopefully improved. But I've decided to let this highly episodic novel stand as written a decade ago. Maybe one day I'll breathe some fresh life into it. As Mark Twain once said, I dunno. Mebbe.