Kissing the bread : new & selected poems, 1969-1999 / by Sandra M. Gilbert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilbert, Sandra M.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Genre:

Fiction.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copies 1 & 2)

Physical Description:

320 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton & Co., [2000]

Summary:

This new collection documents some thirty years of Sandra M. Gilbert's career as a poet, from the sometimes fearful, sometimes exuberant visions of In the Fourth World, through the feminist awakenings recorded in Emily's Bread, the explorations of memory and desire gathered in Blood Pressure, and the lamentations of Ghost Volcano, to a range of recent poems mapping the many meanings of grief, survival, and even regeneration.

Contents:

I. The Magi in Florida

The Magi in Florida, 1988 19

About the Beginning 21

The Dolls 23

Uncle Barney 25

Going to Connecticut 28

Thirty Years Later I Meet Your Seventeen-Year-Old Daughter the Poet 31

The Mall 34

Seizure 36

The Outsider 37

Broth 39

Indoor Camellia 40

Journal Entry, 1984 42

Mother-in-Law 44

In the Garage of the Retirement Complex 45

Gold Tooth 47

God, He Had a Hat! 49

Variations on a Theme 51

After the Freeze 53

The Scar 54

October 31, 1995: A Ghost in Goldwin Smith 56

Berkeley, February 11, 1998: The Hypothetical Life 59

Ending the Book 61

The Tidal Wave 63

Walking the Seawall 65

II. Want

Death 69

Code Blue, ICU, Bed 5 72

Talk Show 75

Against Poetry 77

Want 78

1. Kilninian Kirkyard 78

2. The Dead 79

3. I Am 81

The Mountains 83

Memory Fails 85

Some Definitions 89

1. Aperitif 89

2. These Old Keys 90

3. October Cobwebs 91

4. Basil 92

5. Fog on the Coast 93

6. Pumpkin 95

7. Enormous Wind 96

8. Mexican Sage 97

9. November Afternoon 98

10. Spoon 99

11. Leaves 100

12. December 101

13. After 102

14. Dark Blue 103

15. Trunk 104

16. One Pine Cone in the Fire 105

17. Calvados 106

Objet Trouve 108

After Long Rain 110

Omens 111

Epithalamion 112

III. When She Was Kissed by the Mathematician

When She Was Kissed by the Mathematician 117

Her Response to His Theorem 119

She Grapples with Operations Research 120

He Issues Commands 122

He Discusses Gravity 124

After He Expounds the Theorem of the Different Infinities 125

Long Division 127

They Debate Triangles and Medians 129

He Explains the Book Proof 131

IV. At Cleopatra Bay

At Cleopatra Bay 135

Sorrow 137

Shelling Beans Outside Pollenca 139

Aurora Borealis 140

Last Sunday at Les Grands Eaux Musicales 142

Autumn, Como 144

1. Olives 144

2. Poets 145

3. Bread 146

4. Wind 147

5. Castle 148

6. Evening Rain 149

7. Morning Rain 150

Notes in Provence 151

1. Dante 151

2. Van Gogh 153

Catedral at Tlacolula 154

Trionfo del Morte 155

1. Dream 155

2. Cookbook 157

3. Museum 158

Hurtigruten 160

1. Alesund: North 160

2. Ornes: Midnight Sun 162

3. Salt Fjord: Arctic 164

4. Lyngstuva: One A.M. 165

5. Trollfjorden: Gerda 166

6. Nordkappbanken: Open Sea 168

V. From Ghost Volcano (1995)

Kissing the Bread 171

October 6, 1992: Seattle, Looking for Mount Rainier 176

February 11, 1992: At the Art Institute of Chicago 178

May 3, 1992: On the Surface 180

June 15, 1992: Widow's Walk, Harpswell, Maine 183

September 10, 1992: Picking Wildflowers in New Hampshire 185

November 26, 1992: Thanksgiving at the Sea Ranch, Contemplating Metempsychosis 187

from Water Music 189

5. Hard Water 189

6. Brine 191

7. The Water Table 193

8. The Lake 194

9. Rain 196

Spring Equinox, 1993: Puerto Vallarta, Playa de los Muertos 197

Calla Lilies 199

February 11, 1994: Berkeley, Anniversary Waltz Again 200

VI. From Blood Pressure (1988)

from The Love Sequence 205

You Discover You're in Love with the Dead Prince 205

How You Fell 207

You Meet the Real Dream Mother-in-Law 209

The One He Loves 211

The Love Sickness 213

The Last Poem about the Snow Queen 214

A Year Later 216

The Return of the Muse 218

Accident 220

Blood Pressure 221

In the Golden Sala 223

Grandpa 225

My Grandmother in Paris 227

Anniversary Waltz 230

Ponce de Leon 232

2085 234

VII. From Emily's Bread (1984)

For the Muses 239

The Dressmaker's Dummy 241

On the Third Hand 243

Emily's Bread 245

Daguerreotype: Governess 247

Daguerreotype: "Fallen" Woman 248

Daguerreotype: Wet Nurse 249

Bas Relief: Bacchante 250

Sculpture: Naiad/Fountain 252

Elegy 254

The Night Grandma Died 255

Simplicity 256

Sitting 258

The Emily Dickinson Black Cake Walk 260

VIII. The Summer Kitchen (1983)

The Summer Kitchen 265

The Brussels Sprouts 268

Five Potatoes 269

Turnips 270

The Leeks 271

Ginger Root 273

The Carrots 274

The Red Cabbages 276

Beets 278

The Wild Grasses 280

Autumn Song 281

The Celery Bushes 282

The Language of Flowers 283

1. Geranium 283

2. Impatiens 284

3. Lilies of the Nile 285

4. Petunias 286

5. Bougainvillea 287

6. Roses 288

7. Daisies 289

IX. From In the Fourth World (1979)

Getting Fired, or "Not Being Retained" 293

The Intruder 296

The Giant Rat of Sumatra 298

Her Last Sickness 300

After a Death 301

Mafioso 302

Shell Collecting 303

Grandmother 305

The Dream of the Sun 306

The Cassandra Dream 307

The Milk Dream 308

The Dream of My Daughter 309

The Grandmother Dream 311

Doing Laundry 312

Tailors 313

The Fireflies 314

In the Fourth World 315.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy 2 has dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

0393049418

OCLC:

43662039