The linked cantos comprising “Lying Like Presidents” are a kind of echolalia in the service of anonymity. Echolalia, usually associated either with a child learning to speak or a disorder, here is a matter of conscience in a poet who craves anonymity in honor of cosmic oneness but remains craven enough to rely on his name, his vita. The cantos are also a paean to two childhood friends whose echolalia enchanted him and now haunts him. The cantos are followed by poems selected from Marbrook’s twelve earlier poetry collections.
I don’t know anyone else whose writing increases in
agility and breadth over time as Marbrook’s does.
—Lee Gould, editor, La Presa, the Embajadoro Press poetry journal
Djelloul Marbrook’s previous works have won critical acclaim and prestigious prizes, including the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, the 2010 International Book Award in poetry, and the 2008 Literal Latté fict
