Michael Rothenberg

Michael Rothenberg Poems

Michael Rothenberg Biography

Michael Rothenberg is an American poet, songwriter, editor, and active environmentalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Rothenberg received his Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Afterward, he moved to California in 1976, where he began "Shelldance Orchid Gardens", an orchid and bromeliad nursery. In 1993 he received his MA in Poetics at New College of California. In 1989, Rothenberg and artist Nancy Davis began Big Bridge Press, a fine print literary press, publishing works by Jim Harrison, Joanne Kyger, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Whalen and others. Rothenberg is editor of Big Bridge, a webzine of poetry. Rothenberg is also co-editor and co-founder of Jack Magazine, He is the editor of:Rothenberg's poems have appeared in 88: A Journal of Contemporary American Poetry, First Intensity, Cortland Review, Golden Handcuffs Review, Exquisite Corpse, Zyzzyva, Mudlark, Jacket, Rolling Stock, Sycamore Review, and other publications. His books include Indefinite Detention: A Dog Story translated into Arabic by El Habib Louai (Al Kotob Khan, Cairo), Indefinite Detention: A Dog Story (Shabda Press, USA), Indefinite Detention: A Dog Story (Ekstasis Press, Canada), Choose, My Youth As A Train, Unhurried Vision, Paris Journals, What The Fish Saw, Nightmare Of The Violins, Man/Woman w/Joanne Kyger, and Favorite Songs. In 1990 Rothenberg began writing songs. His songs have appeared in films by Hollywood Pictures, Shadowhunter and Black Day, Blue Night.)

The Best Poem Of Michael Rothenberg

Two Worlds

The amber tongue contains the carcass of
An ant. Our thoughts crucified with
Ruby nails hammered flush against the
Expatriate utterances of stolen voices
Hemming, hawing, planning, damning
Rivers too big to succumb to the pharmacy
Somewhere there's a way back, sure
But where was that place? It was health
Two divided worlds we walked, both of us
Who never knew it well, wrote our
Last will with hindsight. The future will
Not rest. We didn't do a very good job
Learning the new each other. Like Heron
And Crane: 'And to this very day they
Go to each other to propose but never get
Married.' Pour wine over brimming
Lip of glass, splotch white table-cloth
Pressed with blues, argue out blame
Say goodnight in tears

Michael Rothenberg Comments