Facing the Music (1980)
I came Paul Auster not through The New York Trilogy but through a skinny chapbook from Station Hill press called Facing the Music, published in 1980. It had goodbye woven all through it. Not “goodbye cruel world” but goodbye to poetry, which he’d been writing and publishing for a decade. It was his last standalone collection, and when I think of him now, I think of those 13 pages of valedictory verse. Poetry may address emptiness but it thrives in being. Auster needed prose to keep one foot firmly planted in each of those conditions. The condition that in the end always wins took him on April 30th—the end of Poetry Month, as it happened. Before City of Glass, before Oracle Night, this is what his passing brought to mind:
Between the Lines
Stone-pillowed, the ways
of remoteness. And written in your palm,
the road.
Home, then, is not home
but the distance between
blessed
and unblessed. And whoever puts himself
into the skin
of his brother, will know
what sorrow is
to the seventh year
beyond the seventh year
of the seventh year.
And divide his children in half.
And wrestle in darkness
with an angel.
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
I think you’d enjoy him, Pat! He’s written all kinds of books, from postmodern mysteries to domestic dramas, all “voiced” in different ways. He has fun. The closest analog, in my mind, is the wonderful Percival Everett, whose work I’ve taught at UCOL. One student got mad at me and said the novel in question, PERCIVAL EVERETT BY VIRGIL RUSSELL, was a horrible waste of time. A few years later, after he graduated, I got an email from him saying he couldn’t get the book out of his head and so had returned to it and fell in love with it. Auster can be like that….
Auster is one I missed, have never read. You inspire to give him a try.
I’ll check out Robison, Jim. I love the title “The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility.” Tantalizing.
Marjorie, Auster’s little book is collectible and thus expensive these days. Best to get his Collected Poems used—I think it’s out of print otherwise—for under $10. See https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&ref_=search_f_hp&tn=collected%20poems&an=paul%20auster
An interesting take on the whole Esau and Jacob story. I, too, came to The New York Trilogy late having read several books first but, alas, no poetry. I will investiage. As you are a fan you might want to check out Brent Robison’s work which is unapologetically indebted to Auster.
Thanks very much for this post. I love the poem. I had never seen it and will try to track down the chapbook.