In a prominent bar in Secaucus : new and selected poems, 1955-2007 / X.J. Kennedy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kennedy, X. J.

Series:

Johns Hopkins, poetry and fiction

Language:

English

Physical Description:

xiv, 205 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.

Summary:

For more than half a century, readers and listeners have taken special pleasure in the poetry of X. J. Kennedy. In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus is an ample gathering of his best work: memorable songs, startling lyrics, poems that tell poignant stories, character studies that vie with those of Edwin Arlington Robinson. A master of verbal music, Kennedy has long been praised for his wit and humor; as this collection reveals, many of his poems also reach surprising depths and heights. As Donald Hall commented, "many of Kennedy's poems are wit itself. His wit is his way of understanding. No one else writing is capable of the effects in which Kennedy specializes."

This book skims the cream from several slim volumes and six past collections including the prize-winning Nude Descending a Staircase, Cross Ties, and The Lords of Misrule. It restores to print over fifty poems unavailable for decades and adds more than two dozen new poems collected for the first time. Kennedy has long occupied a unique place in American poetry; In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus now offers the first comprehensive collection to span his entire career.

Contents:

Nude Descending a Staircase (1961)

First Confession 3

Solitary Confinement 4

On a Child Who Lived One Minute 5

Faces from a Bestiary 6

Nude Descending a Staircase 7

The Autumn in Norfolk Shipyard 8

Warning to Sculptors 9

Lewis Carroll 10

In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day 11

Barking Dog Blues 13

Inscriptions after Fact 14

Lilith 14

The Sirens 14

Narcissus Suitor 15

Theater of Dionysus 16

At the Stoplight by the Paupers' Graves 19

Little Elegy 20

Ladies Looking for Lice 21

B Negative 22

At the Ghostwriter's Deathbed 25

Rondel 26

One A.M. with Voices 27

Growing into Love (1969)

Cross Ties 31

Poets 33

Nothing in Heaven Functions as It Ought 33

Creation Morning 34

Traveler's Warnings 35

Main Road West 35

Edgar's Story 35

National Shrine 36

Peace and Plenty 36

Driving Cross-country 37

Reading Trip 39

Requiem in Hoboken 43

For a Maiden Lady 44

Pottery Class 45

Absentminded Bartender 46

Loose Woman 47

Ant Trap 48

West Somerville, Mass. 50

Day Seven 50

The Ascent 50

Golgotha 52

Ode 55

Two Apparitions 56

Artificer 57

Daughter in the House 58

The Shorter View 59

Giving in to You 60

Slim Volumes

Breaking and Entering (1971)

Song: Great Chain of Being 63

Consumer's Report 65

The Atheist's Stigmata 66

In a Secret Field 67

Emily Dickinson in Southern California (1973)

Mining Town 68

Schizophrenic Girl 69

Evening Tide 70

A Little Night Music 71

Celebrations After the Death of John Brennan (1974) 72

Three Tenors, One Vehicle (1975)

Talking Dust Bowl Blues 76

Song to the Tune of "Somebody Stole My Gal" 77

Cross Ties: Selected Poems (1985)

In a Dry Season 81

A Footpath Near Gethsemane 82

Dirty English Potatoes 83

Goblet 84

Aunt Rectita's Good Friday 85

Hangover Mass 86

One-night Homecoming 87

October 88

Joshua 89

Old Men Pitching Horseshoes 90

To Dorothy on Her Exclusion from The Guinness Book of World Records 91

At the Last Rites for Two Hotrodders 92

Flitting Flies 93

The Death of Professor Backwards 95

At Brown Crane Pavilion 96

On the Proposed Seizure of Twelve Graves in a Colonial Cemetery 97

A Beardsley Moment 99

Dark Horses (1992)

The Arm 103

Twelve Dead, Hundreds Homeless 104

The Waterbury Cross 105

Veterinarian 106

The Animals You Eat 107

Snug 108

Overnight Pass 109

Two from Guillaume Apollinaire 110

Pont Mirabeau 110

Churchbells 111

To the Writers Forbidden to Write 112

Terse Elegy for J. V. Cunningham 113

On Being Accused of Wit 114

Emily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World Now that Her Homestead in Amherst Has an Answering Machine 115

The Withdrawn Gift 116

On the Square 117

Dump 119

Summer Children 121

Tableau Intime 122

Black Velvet Art 124

The Lords of Misrule (2002)

"The Purpose of Time Is to Prevent Everything from Happening at Once" 127

Jimmy Harlow 128

Naomi Trimmer 129

Five-and-Dime, Late Thirties 131

Sailors with the Clap 133

For Allen Ginsberg 134

Thebes: In the Robber Village 135

Close Call 136

Street Moths 137

Decor 138

The Ballad of Fenimore Woolson and Henry James 139

A Scandal in the Suburbs 145

To His Lover, That She Be Not Overdressed 146

The Blessing of the Bikes 147

Sharing the Score 149

A Curse on a Thief 150

Pie 151

Shriveled Meditation 152

Meditation in the Bedroom of General Francisco Franco 153

Maples in January 154

September Twelfth, 2001 155

New Poems

Panic in the Carwash 159

At Paestum 160

Rites 161

Small House Torn Down To Build a Larger 162

Uncertain Burial 163

Innocent Times 164

Epiphany 165

Furnished Rental 166

Brotherhood 167

Death of a Window Washer 168

Pacifier 169

Geometry 170

Silent Cell phones 171

Fireflies 172

Mrs. Filbert's Golden Quarters 173

Jerry Christmas 174

Poor People in Church 176

Sonnet Beginning with a Line and a Half Abandoned by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 178

God's Obsequies 179

Storehouse 181

At the Antiques Fair 182

Secret River 183

Command Decision 184

Bald Eagle 185

Meeting a Friend Again After Thirty Years 187

Finding a Tintype 188

Out of Tune with the Stars 189

Envoi 191.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780801886539

0801886538

9780801886546

0801886546

OCLC:

77504801

Online:

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