This collection includes the work which constituted my Ph.D. dissertation Babylons, Other Poems. “Babylons,” contains 30 sections of 30 lines apiece and takes place asynchronously in the Middle East and American Midwest. The British colonial administrator and founder of the Baghdad Museum, Gertrude Bell plays a central role.
Other loci in the collection include Mt. Rainier, Samos, Venezuela, and Carthage, Missouri. Science in poetry is evident in “Variations on a Theme by Einstein.” The collection was shortlisted for the National Poetry Series and ends with a coda to “Babylons,” written a few weeks after 9/11 and performed late that September in New York City.
Mike Barrett Archive 