“Rich people spend their money / on other money. / I spend my money on string, colorful string”– How can poetry about poverty and the injustices of late-stage capitalism contain so much joy? How can poems court absurdism without cynicism? How can poetry be both empathetic and irreverent? I wish we all knew what M.P. Carver knows.

-J.D. Scrimgeour, Salem, MA Poet Laureate, author of Lifting the Turtle