In Between the Charges - a Poetry Chapbook by Myles Gordon

Publication Date: January 1, 2017
Paperback, 30 pages
ISBN: 978-1-937968-28-1

Available from Small Press Distribution

In this powerful verse – a sonnet sequence, no less – Myles Gordon evokes her life Cold War caricature to collateral damage, from an old newspaper photograph to a living presence. Written as an imagined monologue from Rosenberg to her brother her life. As the spectre of Cold War threatens to return, Ethel Rosenberg’s life and us or against us," when loyalty to the state eclipses devotion to mankind. If learning the lessons of her history prevents us from repeating our past, then her death need not have been in vain.

Praise for Myles Gordon's In Between the Charges:

"Anyone who has doubts about the persistent vitality of the English sonnet as an expressive form, need only plunge into Myles Gordon's In Between the Charges. In this sequence of eighteen sonnets, the poet takes us into the dying moments of Ethel Rosenberg, into the thoughts and words that come to her in the moments between the two separate jolts it took for the electric chair to finish its work. Thoroughly colloquial and yet intensely musical, these poems take the almost unimaginable and make it into an unforgettable elegy."

Fred Marchant, author of Said Not Said


"In his sonnet sequence, In Between the Charges – For Ethel Rosenberg, Myles Gordon conjures David Greenglass and the sister he betrayed, Ethel Rosenberg, in scenes both domestic and political. Rosenberg’s voice narrates their childhood memories 'up on the roof' in 1928, or babysitting in 1922. She shares memories of childhood Hebrew studies in 1925, 'our smiling parents’ laps' recalled 'as they buckled me in the chair and tightened the straps.' Past and ever present quickly merge in a story fueled by 'the bomb / that captured everyone’s imagination, / how it rose from the sand like a mosque’s golden dome,' a story that slows time and ultimately resurrects Rosenberg in her final moments. Gordon brings these many contrasts and forgotten details to life through voice and form, asking 'who / decides such things?' for all of us."

Jill McDonough, author of Habeas Corpus and Where You Live


"Myles Gordon is one of the outstanding poets of his generation. Writing in form, he conveys emotion, pent up and all the more poignant for the requirements of the sonnet. In this sequence, In Between the Charges, Gordon writes in the voice of Ethel Rosenberg. He captures her tenderness, love of family, her bewilderment and intense grief. She speaks ostensibly to her brother, yet in these poems she speaks to all of us. This is a brilliant collection and a wrenching one. Through Myles Gordon, Ethel Rosenberg lives alongside questions of innocence and betrayal. We mourn the injustices done. Timely and moving, this sonnet sequence is a major part of the tapestry of American literature."

Kathleen Spivack, author of Unspeakable Things and With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Plath, Sexton, Bishop, Kunitz and Others

Myles Gordon’s book-length poetry collection Inside the Splintered Wood was published by Tebot Bach as winner of the press’s "Patricia Bibby First Book Competition." It was named a "Must Read" as a finalist for a Massachusetts Book Award, through the Massachusetts Center for the Book. His Evening Street Press in 2009 as winner of the press’s "Helen Kay Chapbook Competition." His chapbook, Until It Does Us In, was published by Cervena Barva Press. He is a past winner of the Grolier Poetry Prize, and received honorable Intro Award – Poetry. He was featured in the anthology Awake! A Reader for the Sleepless (Soft Skull Press). His poetry has appeared in numerous journals including Slipstream and Rattle. He teaches History, English and Special Education in middle and high school in the Boston area, and works as an
editor, producer and reporter for WBUR, one of Boston’s National Public Radio affiliates.