Residuum

Praise for Residuum

“Martin Rock’s first collection of poetry, Residuum, is a work of what one could call “preserved erasure.” Unlike books that black out or excise text, as though by a whimsical censor’s pen, Residuum uses the straight line of the strike-through to perform enact embody allow its resections to remain apparent… Through this method, Residuum suggests that linguistic mutation might help us migrate through “plains / pages / internet” to reach an “incorporeal mind” that lives within and through our language.”
—Zach Savich, Poetry Northwest

“Martin Rock’s Residuum spins language into twinned helices of what is said and what is taken back, layering micro- and macroscopic images of bodies in love and space and history. It might make you a little dizzy. It might be contagious or reproducing. It might ask you to glimpse at the moments when you try to speak truly and find your words coming out all infected and in debt. It is a love poem as Williams’ Asphodel is a love poem. It is spectacular and leaves me with a head encircled by stars.”
—Heather Christle

“In Residuum, Martin Rock creates the illusion of an enormous mind al­ways in motion. ‘Meditating on the peak of a mountain last year / years ago // I held all the universe inside my skull,’ it informs us, suggesting both the intimacy and vastness of its vision. At times, these poems ap­pear to live beyond the range of any individual, as if Emerson’s Oversoul spoke directly to, and through, us—though just as quickly they become intimate and humane, whispering softly into our ears. Always, Rock’s observations, subtractions, and revisions fascinate, disrupting any clean, centered view of the world, replacing it with brilliant abstraction.”
—Kevin Prufer

“Martin Rock’s remarkable debut collection, Residuum, takes on nothing less than making the unsayable (as Heidegger perceives it) ‘legible.’ I find the partial erasure form of this book dynamic, and lyrically fluid. Residuum is also moving, and genuinely funny in many spots. For all its critical engagement and thoughtfulness, it never loses the necessary, bodily pulse. Rock’s is a wonderful new voice to encounter, a poet who takes from several different canons within our poetic tradition and makes something utterly his own from them.”
—Erin Belieu

“In our culture where composition largely resides between blinking cursors and revision is often an act of deletion, Martin Rock’s impressive debut collection, Residuum, announces itself like a command to ‘Save.’ Language is not just the words that we use but everything that has been reconsidered, replaced, evolved, or ignored to get us here. Sometimes, that language comes via the intense privileges of gender, race, or class. Other times it can be a more earned catalogue of allusion and emotions. These lyrics compositions of image and additive subtraction are earned and owe as much to Robert Rauschenberg as they do Martin Heidegger. And because of that, Rock’s collection is a visual and allusory opportunity for the reader: the word bank is open, the questions are asked, and the answers are here in poems that are both unexpected and fascinating.”
—Adrian Matejka