The Storehouses of the Snow

Recognition

“Bitter and brilliant, ardent and persistent, The Storehouses of the Snow is a book to read–no fooling–alongside the Book of Job. Every poem here made me catch my breath in astonishment at Philip Memmer’s bold imagination and the sacred relentlessness of his quest.”–Alicia Ostriker, author of The Book of Seventy

“In his delightfully audacious fourth book, Philip Memmer addresses a deity who is ‘always ceasing / to be, and then ceasing / to cease to be.’ In Psalms that fuse contemporary language and wit with scriptural gesture, Memmer knits a sweater for God and presents Him with new ‘by-laws for their unsatisfactory relationship’; in recast biblical stories and invented parables, he foregrounds God’s absence and sanctioned destructions. But the poet’s disappointment with the one he calls Father is tempered by wistfulness and wisdom; even before the book’s surprising final turn, he offers this: ‘you must / find the kingdom empty, / then make it yours.'”–Martha Collins, author of Blue Front

“In The Storehouses of the Snow, Philip Memmer–with a storyteller’s gift for intrigue, wit and compassion–gives us imaginative and compelling variations based on well-known Biblical passages and phrases. These poems are graceful, heady, ironic, full of feeling and a Job-like questioning intelligence. An impressive follow-up to his prize-winning Lucifer.”–Peter Makuck, author of Long Lens: New & Selected Poems