Pre-Owned Exactly What Happened (Paperback) 1557531587 9781557531582

This first collection of poems unveils the magician's trick: an illusion only works if we believe that what we've just seen is exactly what happened. With a hairsplitting sense of detail and spellbinding language, Joel Brouwer's poems consider characters and events both real and imagined, seeking to expose the deceptions we live with daily. Belief is at stake in every poem. A boy discovers his mail-order magic kit is fake. Astronomers find water in a distant galaxy and wonder if life might exist there. A photojournalist manipulates his pictures to maximize their drama. Harry Houdini explains that his illusions came not from magic but labor, from "these fingers, cut callused stalks." In these and many other poems, Exactly What Happened reflects on the incidents and accidents that make up the enchanting, painful, and quirky world in which we live in. Written with the scrutiny of a reporter and a conjurer's sympathy for mystery, Brouwer's poems help us find the dignity in belief's deceit.