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In George Bilgere’sThe White Museum, the poet wades through the rising tide of aging with honesty, humor, and reflection.
In this reissue of his fifth collection, Bilgere uses the imagery of a zero-degree frost to draw readers into a warm sense of nostalgia that permeates the collection. The poems range from the everyday—a bird wrestling with a used tampon, fast-food receipts, broken dryers—to life's more difficult moments: the fresh and lingering grief of losing a loved one, or the aftermath of a spouse’s affair. Yet each is examined with a tongue-in-cheek wit that keeps the reader turning the page. Together, the poems become the frames of an exhibition, inviting readers to linger, contemplate the small moments of ordinary life, and embrace the odd, sometimes uncomfortable "what ifs?" that shape our days. Bilgere reminds us that it is often in life's most routine moments, when our guard is down and our minds begin to wander, that we feel most deeply. The White Museum offers readers an exhibition worth revisiting, asking only that they follow the familiar rules of a museum: “Be respectful. Speak quietly. No flash photography. Tell your friends you saw something beautiful.”
In this reissue of his fifth collection, Bilgere uses the imagery of a zero-degree frost to draw readers into a warm sense of nostalgia that permeates the collection. The poems range from the everyday—a bird wrestling with a used tampon, fast-food receipts, broken dryers—to life's more difficult moments: the fresh and lingering grief of losing a loved one, or the aftermath of a spouse’s affair. Yet each is examined with a tongue-in-cheek wit that keeps the reader turning the page. Together, the poems become the frames of an exhibition, inviting readers to linger, contemplate the small moments of ordinary life, and embrace the odd, sometimes uncomfortable "what ifs?" that shape our days. Bilgere reminds us that it is often in life's most routine moments, when our guard is down and our minds begin to wander, that we feel most deeply. The White Museum offers readers an exhibition worth revisiting, asking only that they follow the familiar rules of a museum: “Be respectful. Speak quietly. No flash photography. Tell your friends you saw something beautiful.”
Price: $17.99
Pages: 96
Publisher: Autumn House Press
Imprint: Autumn House Press
Series: Autumn House Press Poetry Prize
Publication Date:
18 May 2027
Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.50 in
ISBN: 9781637681343
Format: Paperback
"Once again, George Bilgere has shown that imaginative wonders and deep emotional truths can be achieved with plain, colloquial American speech." —Billy Collins
"The funny thing about The White Museum is that it keeps on being funny while being perfectly clear-eyed about the cargo of unrealistic expectations. The other thing is that George Bilgere is an absolute whiz at the twists and turns of the glorious American language, the flexible American syntax, as spoken by everybody up and down the great chain of Americanness in our bewitched century. Oh, what a pleasure to watch him spin those sentences." —Alicia Ostriker
George Bilgere has published six collections of poetry, including Imperial (2014); The White Museum (2010), which was awarded the Autumn House Poetry Prize; Haywire (2006), which won the May Swenson Poetry Award; and The Good Kiss (2002), which was selected by Billy Collins to win the University of Akron Poetry Award. He has won numerous awards, including the Midland Authors Award and a Pushcart Prize. Bilgere has received grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Commission, and the Ohio Arts Council. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. Bilgere is Distinguished Professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he currently lives.