Prayers From The Protosonic
Patrick Rosal

Prayers From the Protosonic traces the sacred through our natural landscapes and changing seasons, rendering the poet's life of dance, failure, distance, and so many instances of touch, probing the ways he might confront death and celebrate love through aging. With jubilant music, Rosal’s poems distill agony and tenderness into tremor and sumptuous reverberation. This is a book that troubles celestial questions with sensual attention, traveling across languages and deep into history in search of immanence and intimacy, the invention of sacrament and the sacrament of invention, this effusive renewal by way of utter presence, where quiet begets a wish, and a wish begets a profound listening—until this listening becomes holy. 

“There is music here. I hear music in [Rosal’s] words. That place where songs and melodies come from. Prayers and poems come from there too. That’s the place I want to be…. His beautiful poems and prayers resonate, connect, and inspire me. ”
—Bill Frisell

Patrick Rosal is an award-winning poet, essayist, and interdisciplinary artist. His previous books of poetry include Brooklyn Antediluvian and The Last Thing: New & Selected Poems. His honors include the Lenore Marshall Prize and William Carlos Williams Award, with fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, and the Fulbright scholars program. In 2026, he was appointed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Poet-in-Residence. A Distinguished Professor at Rutgers-Camden, Rosal lives in Rahway, New Jersey.    

Hardcover / $28.00 (Can. $38.99) / ISBN 978-0-89255-663-2 / 96 pages / Poetry