The strict economy of fire : poems / Ava Leavell Haymon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Haymon, Ava Leavell.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

viii, 52 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 2004.

Summary:

On a pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Nepal, a group of American women trek into the Himalayas, beginning and ending in Kathmandu. They ascend, turn back just short of reaching their destination because of impassable snow, and descend. "Say what you see," smoke rising on a distant mountain seems to command, and Ava Leavell Haymon responds with language that strives to reconcile the extremes of this exotic place-danger and awesome beauty, community and abandonment, death and life, flame's heat and altitude's cold, an alien landscape and the poet's own deep memories. Fires-of cooking, festivals, cremation, deforestation, and starvation-rage through the poems; like the name of the Hindu goddess Kali, fire is "destruction and creation / in one word." An exacting yet exhilarating poetry collection, The Strict Economy of Fire asks what we can know and what we can never know "on this far side of the earth."

Contents:

Care and Feeding 1

God of Luck 2

Festival of Lights 3

Visitation: Goddess of Prosperity 5

Above the River Ghandaki 7

Walking 8

Moonfall 9

The Questions Women Ask 10

Through the Black Ranges 11

Village of Thieves 12

First Smoke 13

Trick of Distance 18

The Art and Practice of Description 20

The Only Way Home Is to Climb Higher 24

Catechism: Om Mani Padme Um 25

Rhododendron Forest on the Last Ascent 26

Crossing the Pass 27

Nightfall 28

Waking 29

The Way Down Is Steep As the Way Up 31

Face of Glory 32

To Climb Mountains, You Look at the Ground 34

Walking Through Luck to Abundance 35

Reentry: Agricultural Horizon 36

Decorating for Holiday 38

Household Sculpture 40

Stars for the Ganesh Himal 43

Bus Ride Back to Kathmandu 44

What Comes: An Offering in Gratitude for a Safe Expedition 49

The Question Everybody Asks 50

Naming Red 52.

ISBN:

0807129941

0807129933

OCLC:

54279952