The Trembling Answers
At once an extension of and a departure from his previous explorations of family and art, Craig Morgan Teicher’s The Trembling Answers delves boldly into the tangled realms of fatherhood, marriage, and poetry. Dealing with the day-to-day of family life—including the alert anxiety and remarkable beauty of caring for a child with severe cerebral palsy—these personal narratives brightly illuminate the relationship that exists between poetry and a life fiercely lived.
Video Baby Monitor
A watched
pot never boils, so perhaps
a son on a screen never
dies. Like the eyes
of a painting this image
follows wherever we move.
Surveillance is love, love
is every moment the last.
Barely moving picture, memory
of now, sleep, be still, be
safe. Night is long, life short.
I cover you with my eyes.
Craig Morgan Teicher: is the author of four books of poetry and fiction and the editor of Once and For All: The Best of Delmore Schwartz (2016). A prolific critic and reviewer of poetry, he has worked at Publishers Weekly for 10 years, where he is currently Director of Digital Operations. He teaches at New York University and Princeton University.
Craig Morgan Teicher is the author of two previous books of poetry: Brenda Is in the Room and Other Poems, winner of the 2007 Colorado Prize for Poetry; and To Keep Love Blurry; as well as Cradle Book: Stories and Fables. He is also the editor of Once and for All: The Best of Delmore Schwartz, and his first book of essays about poetry, We Begin in Gladness: On Poetic Development is forthcoming from Graywolf in 2018. He has worked at Publishers Weekly magazine for the last ten years and is currently Director of Digital Operations, where he manages online operations and assets. He also served as PW’s poetry reviews editor for eight years. He is a prolific critic and reviewer of poetry, contributing regularly to The New York Times Book Review, The LA Times, NPR, and many other publications. Having previously served on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle, he has taught at NYU, the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Princeton, and elsewhere, and lives in New Jersey with his wife, the poet Brenda Shaughnessy, and their children.
