"The poems in this collection undulate and glitter darkly like light on deep water; they exist between here and some other place, high-up, where the whole of the human myth first began. Krut's honesty feels sacred; his generosity gives us a safe place in which to reflect and galvanize. Oh Oblivion is truly a collection to read and reread for years to come."
—Colleen Louise Barry
"In a Robert Krut poem, you can recognize the signposts of shared waking life in 21st Century America, the circling helicopters and dive bars and roadside litter, but, much like his cinematic hero David Lynch, his genius is one of de-familiarization: crows pretend to sing, the waves in the restaurant’s mural of the ocean keep changing, and even gravity can’t be trusted . . . every time I’ve read one of his books, I’ve had the uncanny sensation that the dream-like world of his poems has slipped into my real world. After I’ve spent some time with his writing, I’m more alert to the strangeness of everyday objects and less certain of the reality that surrounds me, a sensation that, perhaps counterintuitively, makes everything seem even more real, brighter, more intense. I’m happy to report that Krut’s newest collection, Oh Oblivion, is just as reality-altering as his four previous books." — Hypertext
ABOUT
Robert Krut is the author of five books: Oh Oblivion (Codhill/SUNY Press, 2025), Watch Me Trick Ghosts (Codhill/SUNY Press, 2021), The Now Dark Sky, Setting Us All on Fire (Codhill/SUNY Press, 2019), winner of the Codhill Poetry Award; This is the Ocean (Bona Fide Books, 2013), recipient of the Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Award; and The Spider Sermons (BlazeVox, 2009). His poems have appeared in numerous journals, both in print and online. He teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Writing Program and College of Creative Studies, and lives in Los Angeles.
Photo Credit: Paul Emerson
