Petals of Zero, Petals of One

Book excerpt: Poetry. Andrew Zawacki's third book explores the dynamics of one and of none: being and nothingness, binary code, virtual flowers in a bulletproof vase, she loves me she loves me not. Inflected by an ecopoetics that lets the electro in, PETALS OF ZERO PETALS OF ONE consists of three concatenated tracks, sequenced in a low-tech echo chamber. Winner of the 1913 Prize, Georgia has been praised by Cole Swensen as a vibrant disaster that keeps us feeling falling, while Peter Gizzi calls it a high velocity tour-de-force. The central series, Arrow's shadow is a fractured ars poetica and an elegiac encounter with landscape and syllable, with pixelated forms and light. Storm, lustral choreographs an epileptic last dance along the ditch waters and wanderlust of the Dasein. This volume affirms Susan Howe's claim that Zawacki combines the disciplined perception of a naturalist with the inspired perception of a poet.