The determined days / Philip Stevens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stevens, Philip, 1966-

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Sewanee writers' series

Language:

English

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

92 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Woodstock, NY : Overlook Press, 2000.

Summary:

The sights and sounds and smells of day in and day out, of back and forth to the field, the tracks, the work site, of twilight and the inevitable next morning, of days lived in weary anticipation of the same: these are the themes, motifs, and rhythms Philip Stephens captures in The Determined Days, a remarkable debut collection that illuminates the lives of working men and women inhabiting distinctively American settings. Stephens' natural voice and cadences transport us to far-ranging urban and rural locales in the Midwest, the Ozarks, and northern California. Against often bleak landscapes, his poems introduce us to a host of memorable characters: a former gravedigger who believes ghosts stole his first-born; a young couple forced to stay the night at a motel run by a pornography-watching desk clerk; a woman haunted by a headless deer; a gang of railroad signalmen who get through their exhausting workdays by telling stories, arguing, and vying for what power they can gain in an indifferent world.

Throughout this volume of plainspoken narratives, Stephens captures the outer ruggedness and searching inner spirit of hardened but vulnerable men and women who tell tales tall and short, often reordering chaos and disappointment. Ironic, sometimes tragic, always provocative, The Determined Days is a startling poetic consideration of labor, life, and relationships that raises our hopes for contemporary American poetry.

Contents:

Ditch Digging 13

Hangman 17

March 20

Blue Rose Motel 22

Vineyard 25

Public Relations 28

The Headless Deer 30

Visitor 33

The Ordered Life 36

Owl in the Snow 39

Salt of the Earth 44

Stripper 49

Undertow 51

Paradise, Missouri 53

In the Neighborhood 55

Ornaments 57

Habit 59

Transfer 62

Human Resources 64

Commute 69

True Story 72

Tunnel One 75

Solidarity 77

Seniority 80

The Signalmen 83

Human 85

God Shed His Grace 87

Climbing 91.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

1585670146

OCLC:

43615421