Poetry
The AI Suspects It Might Be a Hungry Ghost
The poems in David Ebenbach’s new poetry collection, The AI Suspects It Might Be a Hungry Ghost, speculate: if a chatbot could feel and think, what would it feel and think? What would it feel about the complicated situation we’re all in right now, as well as the prospects for the future? What would it think about itself—and about us, its human creators?
“David Ebenbach’s latest collection, The AI Suspects It Might Be a Hungry Ghost, is a clever exploration of the larger human forces behind AI. Like the “hungry ghost” which can never be satisfied, “… AI is the culmination/of the human project.” In that way, the poems are less about technology and more a self-reflective commentary on the human condition. That intention is made apparent by the titles of the poems, which give AI impossible attributes, but that’s the point of these brilliant poems. Occasional short nature poems are dispersed throughout the manuscript, reminding us of AI’s limitations and the ways in which wonder is something only we can experience. This book is amazing.”
-Marjory Wentworth, former poet laureate of South Carolina
“Ebenbach’s new book brilliantly explores artificial intelligence, probing the technology with a humanist's keen eye. Each poem cuts through hype and buzz with humor, sympathy, and imagination. Ebenbach’s phrases turn in surprise, outrage, and discovery, drunk with language, taking the reader on a wild tour of the emerging technology. Lines will make you laugh or shudder with dread and recognition.”
-Bryan Alexander, author of Universities on Fire
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What’s Left to Us by Evening
How does one live in a world that is both beautiful and broken—a world of cherry blossoms and gun violence, fellowship and political enmity, plague and rebirth? What’s Left to Us by Evening, David Ebenbach’s unsparing and timely new poetry collection, examines the obligation—and privilege—of carrying it all.
"There’s something reassuring about the way David Ebenbach writes about even the most troubling issues of our time. His poems, often deceptively gentle, offer a kind of tender good humor born of long-suffering patience."
—Ron Charles, Washington Post
"'The world is on its way to you' writes David Ebenbach, and the world in these pages is one made of equal parts grit and tenderness. It’s a world of work, violence, politics, and little apocalypses, but also singing, birdwatching, prayer, and flowers bursting into bloom. At one point, a 'worker lowers / his bag of tools / through the cherry blossoms'—and this might be an apt metaphor for the perspective of this evocative book: behind the world’s tough machinery is an undeniable beauty, and these poems are made by a poet skilled enough to help us see it."
—Matthew Olzmann
For musical accompaniment, check out the What’s Left to Us by Evening playlist!
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Some Unimaginable Animal
In his much-anticipated second poetry collection, David Ebenbach addresses the full scope of the human condition—past, present, and future. Exploring the vast sweep of history, from our ancient evolutionary origins to our future archaeological remains, Ebenbach’s deceptively light-handed poems penetrate to the core of what it means to be human, a brief but exquisite being, full of appetites both healthy and harmful.
“[Ebenbach] has a big voice that includes everybody with wry love....It’s rare to have observation and insight so deliciously prepared that you feel everything is going to be alright. That’s why you keep reading” – Grace Cavalieri, The Washington Independent Review of Books
"Must-read poetry": "A funny, tender, inviting collection, whose traits come from Ebenbach’s gifts of storytelling....Ebenbach takes us into his poems, and these are welcome journeys." –Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions
“Ebenbach is a seeker and seer, steeped in Jewish tradition and, like Walt Whitman, a poet who so loves the world, with its griefs, mysteries, and joys, that he teaches us to love the world with him.” – Jesse Lee Kercheval
For musical accompaniment, check out the Some Unimaginable Animal playlist!
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We Were the People Who Moved
"In We Were the People Who Moved, David Ebenbach takes the reader on a journey across America,” says author Jesse Lee Kercheval. “This is a journey you will be grateful for having taken, a book that will stay with you long after the last poem.” In these poems, we wander under the “fathomless sky” of the Midwest, ride out extreme weather and constant construction in Mid-Atlantic cities, “drive the landscape/at illegal speeds,” find our way to airports and shuttered train stations, and sit at the feet of monuments. We discover that, on the one hand, “you can’t choose your place”; on the other, the sky can become a “sudden/open hand.” Author Kelly Cherry says of the collection, “Poem by poem, Ebenbach’s new collection transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. The result is a book of continual brilliance.”
Patricia Bibby Prize winner!
“We Were The People Who Moved is smart, lyrical, and full of insight. Spiritual observations disguise themselves in plainspoken humor, and intellectualism gives way to intimacy. This is a collection for re-reading, a book to be dog-eared, underlined, and loved.” – Anya Groner, New Orleans Review
“This is a powerful perception of America with intensity of language and lightness of tone.” – Grace Cavalieri, Washington Independent Review of Books
