In To See the Earth Before the End of the World, Ed Roberson presents us with 120 new poems, each speaking in his unique voice and seen through his unique eye. Earth and sky, neighborhood life and ancient myths, the art of seeing and the architecture of the imagination are all among the subjects of these poems. Recurring images and ideas construct a complex picture of our world, ourselves, and the manifold connections tying them together. The poems raise large questions about the natural world and our place in it, and they do not flinch from facing up to those questions. Roberson’s poems range widely through different scales of time and space, invoking along the way history and myth, galaxies and garbage trucks, teapots and the history of photography, mating cranes and Chicago's political machine. This collection is composed of five sequences, each developing a particular constellation of images and ideas related to the vision of the whole. Various journeys become one journey―an epic journey, invoking epic themes. There are songs of creation, pictures of the sorrows of war, celebrations of human labor and human society, a respect for tools and domestic utensils that are well made, the deep background of the past tingeing the colors of the present, and the tragic tones of endings and laments, a pervading awareness of the tears in things. Most of all, there is the exhilaration of a grand, sweeping vision that enlarges our world.

About the Author

Ed Roberson is a former professor of literature and creative writing at Rutgers University. He has taught at the University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. Roberson is the recipient of the Stephen Henderson Critics Award for Achievement in Litera

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Primarily focusing on the environment and sustainability, The Green Arcade also specializes in California and San Francisco history, and subjects and sensibilities radiating out from the Green movement: politics, food, the built environment and urban issues (and its attendant literary field--noir), nature. Also represented are selections from writers, artists and publishers who represent a creative vision--progressive, hopeful, and with an independent eye.

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