Eric is now on Facebook.
Eric Torgersen
Eric Torgersen has published eight books and chapbooks of poetry, two of fiction, and a full-length study of Rainer Maria Rilke and Paula Modersohn-Becker. He also translates German poetry, especially that of Rainer Maria Rilke and Nicolas Born. He was born in Melville, New York. He has a BA in German Literature from Cornell University; after two years in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia, he earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa. He retired in the spring of 2008 after 38 years of teaching writing at Central Michigan University. He lives in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan with his wife, the quilt artist Ann Kowaleski. He’s available for workshops and readings. (photo by Peggy Brisbane)
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Mayapple Press has published Eric's collection of ghazals, In Which We See Our Selves: American Ghazals. Copies can be ordered at:
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There is wisdom here in Eric Torgersen’s poems, wisdom and also humor (the poems make us feel that it is impossible to have one without the other.) Irony and tenderness—along with wisdom and humor—also move playfully in each other’s company. And all these qualities are brought together under the aegis of a form as challenging to write as it is enticing to read. What joy these poems give and what a pleasure they offer to anyone lucky enough to be drawn into their orbit. – Jim Moore – Author of Invisible Strings and Underground: New & Selected Poems.
In this fine collection Eric Torgersen’s great wit and fine ear turn themselves to the ancient Persian verse form, the Ghazal, and dress it, sometimes hilariously, in American tone and circumstance perfectly fitted to an election year, or any year in our strange and various country. When he writes,
The house, you’ll notice, is on fire again.
We might decide to put out the flame for a change.
Look back. Look down. We’re all alone up here.
Let’s not forget the way we came for a change.
you realize this is a book anyone can read with pleasure and instantaneous understanding, even those determined not to understand. – Christopher Howell – Author of The Crime of Luck and many others.
In this fine collection Eric Torgersen’s great wit and fine ear turn themselves to the ancient Persian verse form, the Ghazal, and dress it, sometimes hilariously, in American tone and circumstance perfectly fitted to an election year, or any year in our strange and various country. When he writes,
The house, you’ll notice, is on fire again.
We might decide to put out the flame for a change.
Look back. Look down. We’re all alone up here.
Let’s not forget the way we came for a change.
you realize this is a book anyone can read with pleasure and instantaneous understanding, even those determined not to understand. – Christopher Howell – Author of The Crime of Luck and many others.
Short version of Eric's interview about In Which We See Our Selves with Ben Thorp of CMU Public Radio:
Complete interview in which Eric reads four poems from the book:
Poem of the Month: March, 2018
re: THAT
That was no language, that was your life.
That was a punning linguist.
That was the headline Author Gets Off.
That was an offer of amnesty and amnesia,
a garden variety fantasia,
a sobriety test and I’m sorry, you passed.
That was in love with the history of the West,
in league with mastery, in line with most of the rest.
That was a linguist’s boast.
That was no language boat and you broke it.
That was a love boat and kept you perfectly dry.
A boat in the sky.
That was a scheme with a name on it.
That was to blame and too blind to see.
That was me too.
It was you.
(first appeared in The Diagram)
That was no language, that was your life.
That was a punning linguist.
That was the headline Author Gets Off.
That was an offer of amnesty and amnesia,
a garden variety fantasia,
a sobriety test and I’m sorry, you passed.
That was in love with the history of the West,
in league with mastery, in line with most of the rest.
That was a linguist’s boast.
That was no language boat and you broke it.
That was a love boat and kept you perfectly dry.
A boat in the sky.
That was a scheme with a name on it.
That was to blame and too blind to see.
That was me too.
It was you.
(first appeared in The Diagram)
Click here for the Poem of the Month Archive: past Poems of the Month.
Click What's New for a list of recent, current and forthcoming publications.
Links to Online Publications:
Two new (post-In Which We See Our Selves) ghazals appear in The Ghazal Page #74.
"I Will Die in Lake Superior" appears in the newly published And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917-2017, ed. Ron Riekki, Michigan State University Press, 2017.
Eric's essay "Gaga's Left Arm" appears in Serving House Journal 15, Fall 2016.
Translation of Nicolas Born's poem "Lüneburg Station, April 30, 1976" appears in Plume April 2016,
Four translations from German poet Nicolas Born appear at Blackbird spring 2016: click on current issue or, later, click on index/archive and search Born's name.
Eric's essay "Writing the American Ghazal" appears in Able Muse, Summer 2015, along with a ghazal, "With You."
Three of Eric's ghazals appear in The Ghazal Page #58:
http://ghazalpage.com/iss-58-beautiful-torgersen/
http://ghazalpage.com/iss-58-these-days-torgersen/
http://ghazalpage.com/iss-58-the-moon-torgersen
Another ghazal, "Right," appears in The Ghazal Page #60.
The ghazal "Not Literature" appears at the Pleiades website.
Eric's translation of Rilke's "Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes." appears online at Hermes Poetry. Scroll down to read it.
"I Will Die in Lake Superior" is reprinted at Flyover Country Review, a new site featuring Midwest writing.
A brief essay, "Reading for Otherness," appeared on the North American Review blog November 10, 2014.
Eric's review of Diane Radycki's Paula Modersohn-Becker: The First Modern Woman Artist appeared in Open Letters Monthly , September 2013. www.openlettersmonthly.com .
An interview with Eric appears on the Columbia Poetry Review blog in connection with publication of his ghazal "Broken" in CPR 26.
A short poem, "A Death," appears in The Diagram 12.6.
Eric's short essay "In Passing" is online at bioStories. Scroll down to read it.
"What Is Your Earliest Memory? What Does It Mean?" appears at the Silver Birch Press website.
Full publication information on all of Eric Torgersen's books, with cover images and sample readings, can be found under Books.
All poems and translations on this site copyright © Eric Torgersen.
Two new (post-In Which We See Our Selves) ghazals appear in The Ghazal Page #74.
"I Will Die in Lake Superior" appears in the newly published And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917-2017, ed. Ron Riekki, Michigan State University Press, 2017.
Eric's essay "Gaga's Left Arm" appears in Serving House Journal 15, Fall 2016.
Translation of Nicolas Born's poem "Lüneburg Station, April 30, 1976" appears in Plume April 2016,
Four translations from German poet Nicolas Born appear at Blackbird spring 2016: click on current issue or, later, click on index/archive and search Born's name.
Eric's essay "Writing the American Ghazal" appears in Able Muse, Summer 2015, along with a ghazal, "With You."
Three of Eric's ghazals appear in The Ghazal Page #58:
http://ghazalpage.com/iss-58-beautiful-torgersen/
http://ghazalpage.com/iss-58-these-days-torgersen/
http://ghazalpage.com/iss-58-the-moon-torgersen
Another ghazal, "Right," appears in The Ghazal Page #60.
The ghazal "Not Literature" appears at the Pleiades website.
Eric's translation of Rilke's "Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes." appears online at Hermes Poetry. Scroll down to read it.
"I Will Die in Lake Superior" is reprinted at Flyover Country Review, a new site featuring Midwest writing.
A brief essay, "Reading for Otherness," appeared on the North American Review blog November 10, 2014.
Eric's review of Diane Radycki's Paula Modersohn-Becker: The First Modern Woman Artist appeared in Open Letters Monthly , September 2013. www.openlettersmonthly.com .
An interview with Eric appears on the Columbia Poetry Review blog in connection with publication of his ghazal "Broken" in CPR 26.
A short poem, "A Death," appears in The Diagram 12.6.
Eric's short essay "In Passing" is online at bioStories. Scroll down to read it.
"What Is Your Earliest Memory? What Does It Mean?" appears at the Silver Birch Press website.
Full publication information on all of Eric Torgersen's books, with cover images and sample readings, can be found under Books.
All poems and translations on this site copyright © Eric Torgersen.
