Martial Music

Martial Music, George Amabile?s eleventh book and newest collection of poetry, explores the relationships between civilization, technology, empire and human violence, theatres of war, the collateral damage of military occupation, the machinations of power politics, oil spills, destruction of the environment, ptsd, and other characteristics of what we call ?world events.? These are tough poems for tough times?our times?when the human cost of military conflict, environmental disaster and gun violence have become the daily staple of news headlines. Provocative, unflinching and at times raw with the poet?s fury at unfathomable acts, Amabile?s poems converge as an urgent libretto against the militaristic tendencies that surround us, inciting a march toward the creation of a more peaceful and sincere world.

George Amabile has published ten books and has had his work published in over a hundred national and international venues, including The New Yorker, Poetry (Chicago), American Poetry Review, Botteghe Oscure, The Globe and Mail, The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse, Saturday Night,, Poetry Australia, Sur (Buenos Aires), Poetry Canada Review, and Canadian Literature. He has won awards in the CAA National Prize, the CBC Literary Competition, the Petra Kenney International Competition and the MAC national poetry contest, and the National Magazine Awards.. His most recent publications are a long poem, Dancing, with Mirrors (Porcupine?s Quill, 2011) and Small Change (Fiction, Libros Libertad, 2011) both of which won Bressani Awards. George Amabile lives in Winnipeg.