History Hotel

Baron Wormser is the author of twenty books including novels, a memoir, a book of short stories, and many books of poetry. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. From 2000 to 2005, he served as poet laureate of the state of Maine. He is the founder of the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching. He currently resides in Montpelier, Vermont.

• BriefI.OnceTalkNow and then it rains moneyOde to the Stock ExchangeNFL Poem (Annals of Male Americana)CountingThe New WaveElegy for the Poet Adam ZagajewskiII.State SongOn a Foreseen Death, August 4, 1962Dog Is My Co-PilotFor Raymond LévyA Memorable Occasion: Opening the DoorsAcesUpon the Death of the Actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman, from “Acute Drug Intoxication”Reasons of StateSentenceIII.SelfieNight, Apartment Towers, ManhattanTwo Painters:1. Hopperesque2. John Singer Sargent1910Venus Aligned with MarsA Certain Teacher Does Some BankingThe ShuffleIV.And You, Thomas HardyTwo Songs:1. Outtake from Cymbeline2. DylanesqueSay “Uncle”Self-Portrait with BallOde to WorryOn EmpireLament for an Accountant (1959)“When I have seen by time’s fell hand defaced”V.Lyric1893 1. Opium Den2. Plein AirThe BodyguardHerr Plath-DoktorRecalling Sophocles“I Have Themistocles the Athenian”Pandemic, Nursing Home, Wisconsin, November, 2020The History Hotel

“The History Hotel carries a mixture of quiet humor and hard-nosed insight. There’s little decoration here, no fluff to deflect our attention from what we know that we know—just the energetic presence of Wormser’s consistently cool, keen sensibility that is both bewildered and wise. It’s easy to forget the good work words can do. Line by line, these poems resuscitate our weathered, better selves and the ability to see beyond the lurid surfaces that slowly but surely overwhelm our lives. If the current times offer us a steady stream of absurdities, if we intend to hold onto a sense of compassion while trying to make a sensible way through these days, The History Hotel has cleared a rough path for us.”