Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Safe Rooms

Safe Rooms

Armantrout, Rae

Paperback

Series: Wesleyan Poetry

General Poetry

Publisher Price: $16.95

ISBN10: 0819502561
ISBN13: 9780819502568
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: Aug 11 2026
Pages: 128
Weight: 0.30
Height: 0.50 Width: 5.90 Depth: 8.90
Language: English

Poetry of the shifting architecture of a world we think we know

Acclaimed author Rae Armantrout's remarkable new collection Safe Rooms, explores the undercurrents of modern life with an unflinching eye on human nature, social malaise, and the unsettling ways in which we attempt to protect ourselves from a world that continually undermines our sense of safety. As the title poem says: your thoughts /roar and echo//around you--originating/god knows where.// You try to plug your ears/but you are an ear/ that can't stop listening. Through poems that examine our darker impulses--our tendencies to self-destruct, to grapple with envy, and to navigate the intricate web of family dynamics--Armantrout captures the complex, often contradictory ways in which we search for meaning and connection. Her work holds a mirror to the forces shaping us, both intimate and vast, showing that the so-called safe rooms we construct are fragile, temporary shelters, not havens from the chaos that surrounds us.

[sample poem]

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

1

An atom is localized
by an interaction

the way you surprise yourself
by expressing an opinion

when asked,

one you didn't know you had
and may not hold

for long.


2

A subatomic particle is not
its mass or spin

the way a person
is not a body

and a poem is not
what it says.

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