Ecstatic in the poison : new poems / Andrew Hudgins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hudgins, Andrew.

Series:

Sewanee writers' series

Language:

English

Physical Description:

91 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Woodstock, NY : Overlook Press, 2003.

Summary:

In his sixth book of poetry, Ecstatic in the Poison, National Book Award-finalist Andrew Hudgins offers a host of delights. Long known as a composer of innovative, clear-sighted narratives and hard-driving, truth-telling lyrics, Hudgins now digs deep into the biographical and autobiographical, the lyric and dramatic, the comic and elegiac. Drawing on events of childhood and of later years, as well as the real and imagined lives of others, Hudgins brings to life a rich, comedic, and haunting variety of characters -- among them a prankster who disassembles a Cadillac and rebuilds it in his attic; Russian soldiers on the verge of execution; frenzied inhabitants of Sodom; and several middle-class husbands, wives, and children. Cameo appearances by Alexander the Great and his horse Bucephalus, God strolling in the Garden of Eden, and Josef Stalin, lead the reader through the epochs. In Hudgins's adroit hands, a lake, and even a joke, become personified. Accessible, engaging, evocative, and entertaining, Ecstatic in the Poison is Hudgins at the height of his power.

Contents:

In 13

The Snake 17

The Lake Sings to the Sleepless Child 19

Beneath the Apple 21

The Cadillac in the Attic 23

Day Job and Night Job 24

The Ship Made for Burning 26

Embroidering My Thesis 28

The Children 30

Southern Literature 32

The Chinaberry Trees 34

Arcadia 37

The White Horse 39

Grandma's Toenails 43

Come to Harm 44

The Weight of the Rain 46

Coins and Ashes 48

The God of Frenzies 50

Two Strangers Enter Sodom 51

Bucephalus 53

Behemoth and Leviathan 54

Beatitudes 56

Silver 57

In the Cool of the Evening 59

The Aiming Mark 60

The Fourth Year of an Eight-Year Drought 62

Under the Influence of a Minor Demon 64

Cattails 65

Land of the White Crows 67

A Flag of Honeysuckle 71

Mango 73

Asleep with the Dog 75

Flamingoes Have Arrived in Ashtabula 76

Sun through Sunflowers 78

Wasps in August 79

A Joke Walks into a Bar 80

After Workshop 82

The Poet Asserteth Nothing 83

The Long Ship 84

Piss Christ 85

Blur 86

The Hawk above the House 88

Out 91.

ISBN:

158567429X

OCLC:

52208689