Every now and then -- but rarely -- there emerges a poet so startlingly original and unlike any other that they seem to have evolved in isolation on some island of their own, far from the literary mainland. Ernest Noyes Brookings is one such poet. Brookings is the ultimate late starter: never having written poetry before, he began in his eighties to produce verses on a daily basis, with a quiet intensity and single-mindedness, while resident at a nursing home in Massachusetts. In the seven years until his death in 1987, he produced around 300 poems on subjects such as power tools, white worms, after-dinner mints, Vermont in winter and the death penalty. Despite being written with no thought of an audience or publication, Brookings's poems nevertheless did gain a devoted following among the readers of The Duplex Planet, the small magazine in which the majority were published. The Golden Rule now presents all of the poems in a single volume. With a biographical memoir by David Greenberger (the man who first encouraged Brookings to write), an appreciation by the legendary Al Ackerman and an appendix describing Brookings's unique writing process, this book commemorates a truly distinctive and enjoyable writer.

About the Author
Ernest Noyes Brookings was born in 1898 in Massachusetts. He served in the navy, attended MIT, and settled in Springfield, Vermont, where he worked as a designer of machine parts. He began writing poems in 1980, when he was a resident at the Duplex Nursing Home in Boston. He died in 1987.

Reviews

"His influence is and will continue to be far-reaching" -- Michael Stipe

Book Information
ISBN 9781911052005
Author Ernest Noyes Brookings
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Boatwhistle Books
Publisher Boatwhistle Books