More Songs the Radio Won't Play

Poems

Published by ECW Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
LIST PRICE $22.95

About The Book

Lyrical poetry inspired by popular songs, Rogal sweeps the reader through the journey of creation.

In More Songs the Radio Won’t Play, Stan Rogal takes formerly “popular” tunes (from various genres) and transforms them. Self-referentiality; mashups of the erudite and profane; allusions to other arts and sciences; the insertion and bending of biographical and historical facts; problematic snippets of philosophy and literary theory, quotes, and bastardizations; deploying non- or a-political language to challenge notions of how a poem should work; sampling; and off-kilter humour work together to update Rogal’s playlist for a present-day audience.

While his poems unavoidably serve to comment on the world today, Rogal resists a central message. The true emphasis of this collection is on the process of creation. It’s not the destination but the journey that is of significance. Not mere cover versions, not exactly parodies (though parodic), these poems are redactions, mutations, Frankenstein’s monsters … they resemble the original — somewhat — yet are also grossly different.

About The Author

Product Details

  • Publisher: ECW Press (March 25, 2025)
  • Length: 120 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781770418035

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Raves and Reviews

“I think opening More Songs the Radio Won’t Play to any page is going to leave readers surprised and smiling, which is to say Rogal’s poetry is ‘a wild thing’ that makes everything groovy (sorry, I couldn't help myself). It is a poetry collection that is both endearing and fantastical.” — The Woodlot

“This astonishing collection begs the question: is this a compilation of musical hits, a jukebox of ‘goldy oldies,’ a playlist for contemporary audiences, or a poetry collection? The answer is simple: it’s a synthesis of all of those things. If you read slowly, you’ll realize that this writing is more about the journey than the destination.” — The Typescript

“These poems are smart, clever, and they laugh at that part of themselves. They’re fun. They push the poetic experience into the extremely familiar. They attest to the life and staying power of other people’s words and songs, to everything we receive from our mediated relationships with others. And they push the poetic forms by destroying the single line of thought and making the presence of the past known and deeply felt.”— periodicities

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