After Homer : poems / by Peter Filkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Filkins, Peter.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

79 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : George Braziller, [2002]

Summary:

Written in a voice both direct and timely, Peter Filkins' second book of poems speaks to our present historical moment and its place within the passage of time. Intimately personal and political, the poems remain anchored in a formal complexity that delivers clarity and nuance to the ideas set forth within them. Whether writing on the sinking of the Lusitania, the death of Chekhov, or his father's passing, Filkins reminds us that, no matter the loss, "poetry will survive," helped by the studied meditation he brings to it.

More than a book of poems, After Homer is the record of a mind trying to grapple with the suffering and outrage of history in a time when "terror's partisan love / trades in wreckage like futures" ("Elegy for Joseph Brodsky"), forcing each of us to search "for another metaphor to live by" ("The Fly"). Whether echoing the Persian Gulf War while evoking "the little crucifixion of a missile's sights" ("Dominion"), or writing about "The Venus of Willendorf," a carved figurine dating from 30,000 to 20,000 B.C., Filkins underscores the Homeric notion that there is "nothing sadder than man," though arguing nonetheless that "Love is the answer we give back" ("In Weather"), no matter the trials we face.

After Homer displays a breadth and variety that few books achieve. Even more impressive is the skill and subtlety with which Filkins weaves together such disparate material, his wide range of formal approaches allowing him to move from the secular to the sublime, between outrage and compassion, from love to loss with the turn of a page.

Contents:

After Homer: Iliad, Book XVIII 17

Bottle 21

The Salamander 22

The Manifest 23

Austrian Pastoral 25

The Death of Chekhow 26

Dominion 28

Christmas Blues 29

Anthem for the Victims 30

Watercress Market, 1851 31

A Nightmare 33

The Rescue 34

The Venus of Willendorf 37

The Burn 45

In Weather 46

The New Year 47

The Ride 52

Blueberrying 53

Ending 57

In Lieu of Flowers 58

Elegy for Joseph Brodsky 59

The Ark 64

The Glass Blower 65

To a Suicide 66

The Fly 67

Owl 69

Two Horses 70

The Light 71

After Homer: Iliad, Book XII 75.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 78-79).

ISBN:

0807615056

OCLC:

48177373