X : poems / by James Galvin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Galvin, James.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Penn Provenance:

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

Physical Description:

67 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Port Townsend, Wash. : Copper Canyon Press, [2003]

Summary:

X is a simple gesture and a multiplicity it is both letter and number, and represents the mathematical unknown as well as the signature by which one is known. It is a palindrome, a location, a cancellation. X is the kiss, the embrace, and the betrayal. In James Galvin's sixth book of poems, X is also the map by which the poet marks new terrain. From the "vertigo of solitude" Galvin evokes a deep philosophical engagement with interior and exterior landscapes, asking simply, "What did I love that made me believe it would last?" The Nation has said, "James Galvin has a voice and a world, perhaps the two most difficult things to achicy in poetry." He also achieves a poetry in which nothing is wasted; what one reviewer has called a purely "American sound."

Contents:

Little Dantesque 3

Dear May Eighth 5

Dear Nobody's Business 7

Wild Irises on Dirty Woman Creek 8

Alpenrose Growing by the Door 9

Rolling Sun 10

Show-and-Tell 11

Prevailing Wind 12

Fire Season 13

Ponderosa 14

Earthquake 16

So Long 18

Dying into What I've Done 19

Limber Pines 21

Promises Are for Liars 22

Bad Samaritans 23

Ought 24

Jet Stream 26

Double Rainbow 28

Upslope 31

Conflagration of Opposites 32

Freezing Rain 34

Heat Waves in Winter Distance 35

River Edged with Ice 36

Winter Solstice Full Moon at Perigee 37

January Thaw 39

Leap Year 40

Show Me Your Original Face, the Face You Had Before Your Parents Were Born 41

Cherry Blossoms Blowing in Wet, Blowing Snow 42

Nature, beside Herself 43

Sunset through Spring Snow 44

Depending on the Wind 46

Putting Down the Night 48

Splinters of the True Cross 50

Nature Averts Her Eyes 51

1,2,3 57.

ISBN:

1556591918

OCLC:

51177977