Scott Ezell has published a dozen books of poetry and narrative nonfiction with university and independent presses. A partial list of Scott Ezell’s published books is here. These titles can be ordered from your local independent bookseller.
Rivers of Dust and Light, a photography-poetry project on the US-Mexico border wall in collaboration with Bryan Dickie, will be published in spring 2026.
A Far Corner and Journey to the End of the Empire are available in Mandarin editions published in Taiwan.
The poetry collections Heat Maps and Fiddling While Rome Burns are pending publication.
Also forthcoming is Zomia, an epic-length poem based on dynamics of centers and margins, authority and autonomy, industrial development, and militarization in the China-Southeast Asia border zone, with accompanying documentary photos, based on ten years of first-person experience.
a dead horse stands up and runs in the desert
bits of hair and skin drift in the wind
the road is far and no one knows where it leads
does it matter where the road leads
if you can’t find it
or if you can’t get off it?
hooves dissolve and mix with dust
stones sleep through a thousand resurrections
the desert is an orchard of stillness
where else would soul or spirit go to find itself
where else could you roam after you’re forgotten by time
where else could the iron bit fall away to rust
among flowers that bloom one day a year
then turn into seeds and dreams of rain
a dead plant hangs outside my window
a cascade of dry brown leaves
too far gone for succor or compassion
no touch or nourishment will save it
when you are lost you look for the road
but the road is lost too
the road leads to a wall
all roads lead to all walls
water is a gift of angels
granted like life from a mystery we can’t understand
the dead horse runs to no road and no horizon
only to breath and movement
which is all we ever had anyway
running from the stricture of bones
that holds us to the form
of what we thought we were
Chiapas, 2025
Scott Ezell 