Theory of devolution : poems / by David Groff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Groff, David.

Series:

National poetry series

The national poetry series

Language:

English

Physical Description:

84 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2002]

Summary:

With blazing wit and a searing language, David Groff writes fiercely of erosion and endurance in this stunning debut collection. Theory of Devolution resonates with the persistence of ruination, affectation, and the mysteries of the borders and shorelines we so uneasily inhabit.

At turns fervent and elegiac, dishy and sly, these poems confront the effect of AIDS and HIV on a brotherhood that dealt firsthand with grief and loss and, later, the tenuous prospect of survival. Peopled with the spirits of dead gay men, uncertain lovers, mortal parents, and spectral friends and brothers, Groff's poems are unified by their preoccupation with what erodes us and what we can hold onto when life and love devolve.

Contents:

Theory of devolution

Last moon

Fall

Proving ground

A scene of the crime

Gloria

Laugh

Picture of health

Old pornography

Adultery with Jesse Gerstein

Swing

The guy with the bathing suit around his neck

Ron dies

Leaving the farm

No answers for French Fred

Terror

Trickster video

Birthing

Ron's been dead four years

Memory

Daisy Buchanan, 1985

John beyond

The crabmeat pickers

Sympathy, 1967

Near relations

O brother

Addison Groff chooses the mininstry

Laundry

Hospital garbage, 1968

Life mask of Tom

Your headache

The watchdyke

Naming constellations

For catching hardshell crabs

Facing east near Big Sur

The sense of well being

The Saddle River

Personal land

Magnitudes.

ISBN:

0252027795

0252070860

OCLC:

48817261