Primer of the obsolete / Diane Glancy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Glancy, Diane.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Poetry.

Indians of North America.

Multiculturalism.

Multiracial people--Fiction.

Multiracial people.

Multiculturalism--Poetry.

Genre:

Poetry.

Fiction.

Physical Description:

53 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2004]

Summary:

This remarkable collection of poems explores the conjoined cultures of Indian and European, the revisions the conquered race must face, and the disruption that results from the attempt to combine divergent cultures in a single being. These poems speak from a four-cornered world: Cherokee and white, Christian and conjuring. They attempt to retrieve fragments of language from a nearly erased culture. At times, they speak in the spirit of the remembered language with the new language that is not fully formed in the understanding of the narrator.

The poems have roots in history, religion, and illiteracy. They are inspired by folk artists who use materials and textures at hand -- enamel and cornmeal on plywood, house paint and tar on tin, model airplane paint on corrugated scrap metal. The resulting lyrics walk the boundary between worlds, weaving remnants of the old way of viewing the world with pieces of the new world, such as a clapper that turns lights on and off. The experimental text revisits the gap between past and present. The past is just beneath a newly painted surface. The newly painted surface is not quite dry.

Contents:

The Buffalo at No Wait Cafe 1

Generalist Custer My Highway Man My Trucker 2

The Abandoned Wife Gives Herself to the Lord 3

Lord of the Stable Lord of the Rack 4

Caint Aint Abel 5

I Have a Fever Blister Mister I Might Have Got from You 6

Model Airplane Paint on Corrugated Scrap Metal 7

Sketchy Goings 8

The Lord Rains 9

Bride of Christ 10

Doot Dah Do 11

The Translation Mobile 12

Puff & Toot 13

No One Has to Cross Jordan Alone 14

Birdfood 15

NOah's arK 16

A Wife 18

In my dream there was a house moving 19

Why I Like God 20

I Have My Hand on the Gearshift of My Space Ship and on the Horn 21

Sweatlodge 22

So the said treaties 23

The Last Supper 24

Blue House with People 25

Irredenta 26

Generally he gave them plenty of room 27

Velcro 28

A Trailer That Follows Back 29

If then people walked (or boated) 30

If I'm not on the road I don't think I'm getting anywhere (or) hoc sic) 31

Bakey 32

Leeroy's Wife Paint Nails 33

American Aboriginal 34

Air 35

The Aviatrix at Russell Doughtery School 36

For Stephanie 37

Brown Bomber 38

A History of Languishes 39

Primer of the Obsolete 40

They considered it their duty 41

I am your true woman, Blinky 42

Tongues 43

Crows 44

I Smelled Their Smoke 45

Oven dish 46

The Great Spirit's Wife 47

Photograph of the Ark 48

Flipjacks 49

Three Deer 50

Ranger Otto Ranger Clive 51

Looking for the Ark 52

8 Ball 53.

Notes:

"Winner of the 2003 Juniper Prize for Poetry".

ISBN:

1558494448

OCLC:

55693669