My Account Log in

2 options

Ostinato vamps : poems / Wanda Coleman.

Van Pelt Library PS3553.O47447 O87 2003
Loading location information...

Available This item is available for access.

Log in to request item
LIBRA - Special PS3553.O47447 O87 2003
Loading location information...

Available in person This item can be accessed at the library reading room.

Request an item

Access options

Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Coleman, Wanda.
Contributor:
Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)
Series:
Pitt poetry series
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
American poetry--Women authors.
American poetry.
American poetry--African American authors.
Penn Provenance:
Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)
Physical Description:
115 pages ; 24 cm.
Place of Publication:
Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2003]
Summary:
"Ostinato Vamps is Wanda Coleman's first book of poetry since the demise of her longtime publisher, Black Sparrow Press. In continues and enlarges the traits that have been her hallmark for more than three decades: a fierce adherence to the truth and a language so musical one can almost hear the blues line underneath her stanzas. Linguistically daring, lyrically breathtaking, stylistically bold, these poems both explore familiar territory and shatter stereotypes. Life is difficult, often unfair, but it belongs to the living, as Coleman reminds us in no uncertain terms. Racing between an earthy eroticism and fatalistic despair, filled with humor and tragedy, these poems are alive. They breathe. They challenge us even as they reward us for seeking the truth.
Contents:
I. Red Noir
Revenants 3
Yellowed Parchment 4
Nipples Like Thorns Piercing Thoughts 5
Relocation on the Edge 6
78 rpms on a Piper's Dream 7
Wichita Down West Home 8
Cold Meat & Three Empty Shells 9
Lady Sings the Blues 1969 11
Thirty Seconds over America 13
Requiem for a Nest 14
Almost Pregnant 15
Meanwhile in San Francisco 17
Art & Embellishment 18
Cool Cats Snap Spats 19
Things Go Sour 20
Red Noir 22
Red Eye & Black Beans 23
Los Angeles Nocturne 24
II. Ostinato Vamps
Broken Rhythms 29
Jazz Theory 101 30
Dream Fever 31
Ostinato Vamp 32
Plum Hunger 33
Soul Traveler 34
Mahalia Jones 36
The Boys of Loco Heights 37
Fragments of an Essay 38
Straight Out of Autumn 40
Likes Tangerine Sushi 41
A Second Death 42
After the Rampage 43
Designer Bag and All 44
Translations from the Night 46
The African beneath the American 48
Faruk Yellow 49
Revisiting Fear and Memphis 50
White Wall Syndrome
A Study 51
Lorde Cento 53
The Woman in the Mirror 54
Darwinian Ebb 56
III. Two Fugues & a Prayer
Night Widow Fugue 59
Sorceress of Muntu 74
Prayer for America Reborn 90
IV. The Weighing of My Heart
Fool's Progress 95
Gone Exits 96
Sour Apples 97
The history of my body 98
Slave Driven 99
Olio Intaglio 100
About Our Unborn 103
Baptism 104
The Museum of You 105
The Weighing of My Heart 107
Peace 111
Passing through the Blood 112
Exoteric 113.
ISBN:
0822958333
OCLC:
52958083

The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.

Find

Home Release notes

My Account

Shelf Request an item Bookmarks Fines and fees Settings

Guides

Using the Find catalog Using Articles+ Using your account