Deerbrook Editions

Praise for Djelloul Marbrook's Brushstrokes and glances

Through precise and knowledgeable poetry about visual art, Djelloul Marbrook has made a book almost as good as visiting a museum. In fact, the poems here about museums, galleries, and studios are as penetrating as the ones about the art. Marbrook has lived in a world inhabited by paintings (both his mother and his aunt were noted painters) and these poems testify to years of careful seeing. Brushstrokes and Glances is an intimate book, rich with sly humor, sharp detail, and deep engagement. I will see my own favorite works of art with new attention for having read these beautiful poems.  —Maggie Anderson, author of Windfall: New and Selected Poems

Djelloul Marbrook is one of those colossal poets able to bridge worlds—poetry and art, heart and mind—with rare wit, grace, and sincerity; a soft-spoken artist with the courage to face the "fatal beckoning" of his muse. Here is crisp intellect, seamlessly interwoven with loss and longing. The result is poetry at its best: at once both gritty and refined, private and political, tender and tough as iron. Again, Marbrook has given readers of contemporary poetry something well worth reading.  —Michael Meyerhofer, author of Blue Collar Eulogies

"... a poet with a wonderful authentic voice . . . a breath of fresh air . . . the rare ability to say a lot with a little . . . clear-sighted, eloquent, and precise . . . uses the lightest touch . . . to fashion poems that resonate with truth and honesty . . . a poet worthy of respect and of a following . . . Marbrook has a lifetime of experience, a head full of knowledge, and an innate feeling for what works . . . a unique and powerful point of view and a clear voice."  —Phil Constable in N.Y. Journal of Books

"combines technical precision with imagistic inventiveness to render an intimate benediction in praise of fine art . . . brims with well-made poems in which irony and refinement collide . . . affably invites readers to share in its quest for art-related meaning."   —Pauline Uchmanowicz, Chronogram

Djelloul Marbrook's new book is a love letter to art and art museums . . . Paintings and artifacts alike come alive under Marbrook's gaze. Neither artist nor critic, but son & nephew of artists of some renown, Marbrook reveals an intimate connection with both made objects and their makers . . . effortlessly marries history and art . . . looks at art the way a drinker drinksÑdeeply, passionately, and desperately, as if his life depended on it. Reading these poems makes you want to run out to your favorite museum and look again, as you have never looked before, until the lights go out.  —Barbara Louise Ungar, author of Charlotte Bronte, You Ruined My Life and The Origin of the Milky Way

" . . . a taut interplay between wit and gravity . . . between the private and the political spheres . . . Marbrook always delights and surprises with his twists of thoughts."  —Aiden O'Reilly (Dublin, Ireland), in Currently Reading

"Djelloul Marbrook's triumph is not only that he can experience art the way most of us cannot, it is also that he can articulate his vision and share it in this beautifully crafted book of poems . . . an invitation to 'lift the curse of containment' (see A naming spree) . . . an invitation well worth accepting."  —Teresa Giordano