The optimist / Joshua Mehigan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mehigan, Joshua, 1969-

Language:

English

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

v, 58 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, [2004]

Summary:

In Reading Joshua Mehigan's award-winning poetry, one encounters a vision driven by an amazing facility with the metrical line. Most of Mehigan's poems unapologetically employ regular meter and rhyme. These poems stretch the fabric of living language--its natural emphases, speech rhythms, and syntax--over a framework of regular meter to produce a compelling sonic counterpoint. The book, sneakily titled The Optimist, stares at contemporary darkness visible, a darkly lit tableau that erases the boundary between the world and the perceiving self. Whether narrative or lyric, dramatic or satirical, these poems explore death, desire, and change with a mixture of reason and compassion. As final judge James Cummins said in choosing The Optimist for the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize:

Contents:

Promenade 3

Two New Fish 5

A Questionable Mother 6

The House Swap 7

The Umbrella Man 8

The Spectacle 9

An Ideal Passion 10

A Bird at the Leather Mill 11

In the Home of My Sitter 12

Deja Vu 14

Past Bedtime 15

The Tyrant 16

After Last Call 17

Riddle 18

Imperative of the Minor Florentine Chapel 19

Another Pygmalion 20

The Swan Song 22

The Murder 23

Progress 24

Post Partum 25

War Dims Hopes for Peace 26

"If Ye Find My Beloved..." 27

The Optimist 28

Confusing Weather 29

A Changed Familiar Tree 30

Our Ancient Sire 33

A Cellar in Pankow 34

The Birthday Gift 35

A Contract 36

The Abject Bed 37

Last Moments of Simeon Stylites 38

The Festival 39

Runaway Daughter 40

Introduction to Poetry 41

The Story of the Week 42

Last Chance at Reconciliation 43

After a Nightmare 44

The Suicide 45

A Broken Home 46

Schism by Twilight 47

Family Gathering 48

Buzzards 49

Alexandra 50

A Lot of Noise 52

Dystopian 53

Retirement 54

The Pig Roast 55

The Mayor 56

Rabbit's Foot 57

Merrily 58.

ISBN:

0821416111

082141612X

OCLC:

56058021