Hartley Field : poems / by Connie Wanek.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wanek, Connie, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Minnesota--Poetry.

Minnesota.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

v, 85 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Duluth, Minn. : Holy Cow! Press ; Saint Paul : Distributed to the trade by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, 2002.

Summary:

The poems in Hartley Field are by turns witty and amusing, lyrical and moving. But always they are clear and -direct. Wanek writes clever, closely observed poems on subjects as diverse as "Butter" and "The Hammer," work which is in the tradition of Francis Ponge and Pablo Neruda. These are often humorous and are enormous fun to read. Similarly, a number of poems focus upon children's games and activities ("Checkers" and "Jump Rope," among others), and explore them physically and psychologically. What is most remarkable about this collection is the consistent originality of the imagery and elegance of language. In the poem "Late September," we find "a plumed of smoke hand-feeding the wind." The object poem "Lemon" observes that the fruit has "bumpers on both ends like a Volkswagon." A racoon advancing into a dark yard is described as "a creature both manly and womanly/capable of force or seduction." Here is the first stanza of the elegiac "After Us." -- Rain is falling through the roof. And all that prospered under the sun the books that opened in the morning and closed at night, and all day turned their pages to the light.... Joyce Sutphen says of Wanek, "Nothing about what she says or sees is routine...(Hartley Field) is a book of revelations: in poem after poem, some ordinary object or event is split open with such keen tenderness that the heart is caught off guard." -- Connie Wanek was born in 1952 and lives in Duluth, Minnesota. She is the author of Bonfire, published in 1997 by New Rivers Press. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, The Virginia Quarterly, Country Journal, and many other publications. She has been awarded fellowship support from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and The Jerome Foundation.

Contents:

The Coin Behind Your Ear 12

The Ventriloquist 13

Butter 14

Peaches 15

Red Rover 16

Jump Rope 17

If Bees Could Vote 18

Horses in Spring 19

Summer Night 21

Lemon 22

Poodles 23

Peanuts 24

A Match 25

Long Nights 27

Teeter Totter 28

The Lawyer 29

The Hypnotist 31

Daisies 34

Postcard: Busy Clarence Town Harbor on a Mail Boat Day 35

An April Walk with My Daughter 36

Honesty 38

Black and White Photograph 40

Memorial Day at the Lake 41

The Midwife 43

Woman Knitting 44

The Exchange 45

The Yearling 46

Wild Strawberries 48

Raccoon 49

Summer Yard 50

Children Near the Water 51

A Field of Barley 53

Checkers 55

So Like Her Father 56

Boulder Lake 57

The Hammer 60

Tag 62

The Fugitive 63

Little Trout 65

Ladder 66

Autumnal Tennis 67

Half-Fallen Pine 68

Hard Frost 70

Late September 71

New Snow 72

These Times 73

Grown Children 75

Heart Surgery 77

All Saints' Day 79

Christmas Fable 80

After Us 81

Hartley Field 83.

ISBN:

0930100999

OCLC:

50192116