The Curse of Pheromones
Edition: 1st
Publisher: Main Street Rag Publications; Mint Hill Books
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Charlotte, NC
Number of pages: 64
ISBN-13: 9781599481364
Subjects: Poetry
Genres: Contemporary American
Description: Even not knowing his poem "Against Theory," a reader would recognize that Timothy Geiger as poet writes without concern for the fashions of the day. He's his own man. Such integrity accounts for much of the pleasures his poems offer, and even informs his use of language, which he wields with both authority and a fine touch as in poem after poem he investigates the Self in the World, probing his subject, laying it bare, and naming his discoveries. In that investigation he ranges from supermarket checkout lines to the far reaches of space, from a father and son's difficult relationship to the nature of time itself. Such range is accompanied by an important balance: human misery is present here alongside the poet's determination to celebrate whatever he can. In fact, his celebration of the word "aquamarine" is enough to inspire complete trust in him as a poet--other poets may mumble or shout, but Geiger is a singer, and a good story-teller as well, richly imaginative. The question in one poem, "What if heaven plans to judge us / by how we live in our dreams?" would grace Neruda's Book of Questions and is a measure of Geiger's imagination. Nor is it surprising that in another poem he tells us he wants to "leave / the humbug behind," adding, "this is how to survive," for on page after page in The Curse of Pheromones, a book that is a blessing rather than a curse, Geiger leaves the humbug behind and reminds us how to survive.

--Philip Dacey
Notes: Timothy Geiger is the author of the poetry collection Blue Light Factory (Spoon River Poetry Press,1999) and seven chapbooks, most recently, Four Windows (Brandenburg Press, 2006). His work has appeared in such journals as Poetry, America, Quarterly West, Poet Lore, Black Warrior Review, The Connecticut Review, Mid-American Review, Artful Dodge, The Journal, & Passages North, and in the anthologies American Poetry: Next Generation, (CMU Press, 2000), Place of Passage, (Storyline Press, 2000), and A Fine Excess: Contemporary Writers at Play, (Sarabande Books, 2000). He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize XVII, a Holt, Rinehart and Winston Award, and many state and local grants in Alabama, Minnesota and Ohio. He is the proprietor of the literary fine-press Aureole Press at the University of Toledo, where he teaches poetry writing and letterpress printing. He lives in Toledo, Ohio with his wife and son, Jennifer and Jacob.