Thaddeus Rutkowski

Tricks of Light

The poems in Tricks of Light, a breathtaking collection from award winning writer Thaddeus Rutkowski, meditate on myriad ways of seeing not merely the small, astounding mysteries of life but how seeing, the effort to see clearly, might be the most important thing of all. Under the clear and steady lines, with spare, precise imagery, the poems pulse with the competing urges of love and loneliness. There are also startling comparisons between observational moments and the tender practice of the Buddha that are perfectly balanced with humor. To the patient watcher, a city becomes the universe where the observing self on a bench contemplates a snail, which is, in fact, a wad of gum. At a time when reality itself is questioned and truth appears in short supply, the poet, through his keen eye, assures us that enlightenment is not only possible, but necessary.

Read three poems selected by Alexis Rhone Fancher in Cultural Weekly.

PRAISE FOR TRICKS OF LIGHT

There is an underlying wry humor but also the ache of loss and regret in Tricks of Light. We are struck by what happens to our existence when confronting the family we create and those that we are forced to confront with the compassion of sun and sky. A gorgeous, seamless stream of vignettes flows with cinematic breadth…Here is a poet at the top of his craft reaching a meditative transcendence and generously giving it to us as if ripping a bouquet of memory from his chest.
—Regie Cabico, poet and theater artist

*

An exceptional collection.
—John Brantingham, Cultural Weekly 

*

There is a shifting of ground beneath the poems Thaddeus Rutkowski writes, so that they seem casual commentary while turning slightly to accommodate another meaning. Often written with disport and wit, but also discernment of worry and insult, they accumulate their tricks of light to present a clear perspective. He is, in the poems, both and neither: writer and editor, between the races, an extension and limit of vision.
—Amy Holman, American Book Review

*

Tricks of Light is a beautiful collection, full of keen observations, wry and self-deprecating humor, and twists that make poem after poem a surprise and delight. 
—Scintilla.info

*

Rutkowski has this way of making you feel heard even when he is the one talking. There is a practicality to his poems. You could tighten wingnuts with them or steady a loose wheel on your bicycle. He knows our daily lives are full with poems, if you notice them…A poem contains a bike. The next poem contains a fall from a bike. The next poem contains a bleeding knee. The next poem contains salve and healing. We go from daily observations, to family, to race, to teaching, to New York, and back again, through this connected string of images. This book is not, as some full-lengths are, divided up into three or four distinct sections or Parts. Tricks of Light does not require that structure because the poems fall into the next, like city blocks sharing borders as a bicyclist rides to their destination.
—The Poetry Question

*

Rutkowski's poetry is a vivid and impacting work…Tricks of Light is a very thoughtful and relatable collection of poetry because it asks the reader to think of the minor moments in their lives that could be more meaningful then they realize. It's a demonstration of how every conversation, every encounter, and every detail we come across could have more to it, and about how we recall these moments can say more about us than we realize. While we're in isolation or practicing social distancing, this book can make the reader ponder these moments or images that were once fleeting, but remain vivid through some small imprint in their mind. 
—Alex Carrigan, Quail Bell Magazine

*

Of all the writers I can think of practicing our solitary trade, I can think of no one I would rather spend time in quarantine with than Thaddeus Rutkowski. Rutkowski’s humor is sardonic (reminiscent of Charles Simic in his more comic modes), rich with a deadpan sense of timing that is always flawless in its delivery. His poems feel simple but are often a disguise for a deeper metaphorical intent. The reader is drawn into his intimate-seeming tone that feels autobiographical, and may well be, but you never really know. Does it matter? I don’t think so. What matters is how he leads you down a yellow brick road of strange beauty and wondrous sights and sounds. 
—Misfit Magazine

*

What defines these poems of solitude is that there is something missing, either something is left unfinished or not comprehended…In the course of penning these sly vignettes, Rutkowski has offered an unsettling look at contemporary life where, even as the Internet and other features, it is claimed, will educate and connect us,  so much that happens in everyday life is inexplicable and inconclusive.  
—Jim Feast, Ragazine

*

Each poem in Tricks of Light might seem simple, a vignette that is meant to be taken at face value, but are communicating concepts that reach much deeper. Rutkowski paints scenes in light and dark and uses his gift of sparing but powerful language to conjure poems that make you stop and shudder or open your mouth to take in a gulp of air.
—Amy Ouzoonian, Sensitive Skin Magazine

*

Funny, disarming, and profound, Rutkowski will twist a cliché into something unique, trick you into a new way of seeing. This is a terrific collection!
—Denise Duhamel, author of “Scald”

*

With meditative, simple descriptions, Tricks of Light made me view every little moment as a collection of words waiting to be discovered and carefully placed onto the page.
—Chavisa Woods, author of “100 Times: A Memoir of Sexism”

*

Rutkowski’s poems are a delight to read, for their wry humor, the odd things on which they ponder, and the rich humanity that underlies them all.
—Charles Rammelkamp, Compulsive Reader

*

Thaddeus Rutkowski is a man of small town America and a man of urban America. His poetry is written from the lens of his unique experience in both places at a time in the nation when small town and urban are in constant conflict. Yet, Rutkowski is not in conflict as he equally embraces both in his poetry in honest, forthright and at times humorous verse. He is an observer of life and these poems are the embodiment of what he has witnessed and thus an immediate connection with the reader and we are better for it."
—g emil reutter, North of Oxford

*

The poems in Thaddeus Rutkowski’s newest volume, Tricks of Light, are plainsongs: They don’t aim for transcendence (although transcendent moments are achieved with a genius’s nonchalance) but remain steadily in the world as it is. For Rutkowski, the world’s too often a terrifying and unforgiving place. But Rutkowski also knows that this is the place—the only place—where transformation is possible. And so these plainsongs remind me of a walk a sage might take along an ordinary stone path—the occasional shiny object underfoot only serving to acknowledge a wisdom already possessed. I would walk with Rutkowski anywhere.
—Janet Kaplan, author of “Ecotones”

*

Tricks of Light inhabits that liminal space between what we see and what we think we see, what we know and what perpetually eludes us. Artfully wry and delightfully awry, these are poems rooted in keen observation of a life as it unfolds…. Come to Tricks of Light expecting deft poetics; leave steeped in luminosity.
—Joseph J. Capista, author of “Intrusive Beauty”

*

How do we know what we know? When will we be sure? Thaddeus Rutkowski’s Tricks of Light explores these questions in poetry.
—Tucker Lieberman, Episyllogism

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ABOUT THADDEUS RUTKOWSKI

Thaddeus Rutkowski is the author of six previous books, including the poetry collection Border Crossings. His novel Haywire won the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s Members’ Choice Award, and his creative memoir Guess and Check received the Electronic Literature bronze award for multicultural fiction. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, as well as in Copper Nickel, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Faultline, Fiction, Fiction International, Pleaides, Potomac Review, Sou’wester, and many other magazines. A graduate of Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University, Rutkowski received a fiction writing fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and was a resident writer at Yaddo, MacDowell, and other colonies. Traveling extensively, he has been a featured reader in Budapest, Dublin, London, Paris, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and was selected to read in the former compound of East German President Erich Honecker in Berlin. Rutkowski teaches at Medgar Evers College and the Writer’s Voice of the West Side YMCA and lives with his wife, Randi Hoffman, in Manhattan.

Thaddeus Rutkowski, Tricks of Light

Publication date April 6, 2020

$18.00

ISBN: 978-0-9981440-7-8

Cover artist: Simone Zimmermann