The garbage eater : poems / Brett Foster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Foster, Brett, 1973-2015.

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

x, 74 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Ill. : TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, 2011.

Summary:

The "Garbage Eater" of the title poem in Brett Foster's provocative collection is a member of a religious sect (some would say cult) in the Bay Area who lives an ascetic life eating scraps from dumpsters. Just as this simple way of life exists within the most technologically advanced region in the world, Foster's poems are likewise animated by the constant tension between material reality and an unabashed yearning for transcendence. The titles of Foster's poems--"Like as a ship, that through the Ocean wyde," "Meditation in an Olive Garden," "Little Flowers of Dan Quisenberry" --nod to the poems of the classical, medieval, and Renaissance masters he studies as a scholar. In Foster's vivid imagination, however, they point to the surprises hidden in the quotidian: a trip to the DMV, a visit to a chain restaurant, and the saintly reflections of the Kansas City Royals' best closer. A lesser, more faddish writer would then tend toward ironic distance, but Foster fearlessly raises such unfashionable subjects as joy, doubt, gratitude, and grief without losing a sly sense of humor, even (as the sample poem shows) about poetry itself. Given its ambition, The Garbage Eater hardly seems a debut work. Foster's universal subject matter and approachable style will win fans among both the most experienced poetry readers and those easily intimidated by contemporary verse.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: I

Nights of Fireworks, Days of Drought

Field Trip: Two Colonies

Sponge Bath as Answer to the Problem of Knowledge

The Little Flowers of Dan Quisenberry

The Foreman at Rest

Geography Lesson, 1983

Passage

Lyke as a ship, that through the Ocean wyde

Via Negativa

II

An Appeal to the Ghost of Patrick Kavanagh

Ten Definitions Approximating Grief

Final Night, in Allston

Trashy Elegy for the Queen of Shock Rock

Evening When the Secret Vanished

Risk

The First Request of Lazarus

Afternoon Pilgrims

Meditation in an Olive Garden

Part-Time Work at Coffee Bars

No Sol in California

Petition: California Avenue

Parousia

At the City Church of San Francisco

III

Devotion: For Our Bodies

Papyric Fragments

Aubade, with Samara

Bridal Cave

Sestina for One Coast

New Territories

A Confession Kind of, a Kind of Prayer

Tea with Mr. Milton

Rondeau for Plotinus

To the Author of How to Be a Successful Artist

From the Tarmac

Intercession: For My Daughter

Contrition: Midnight Message

The Advent Calendar

Westward, in the Fading Moments of Any One Day

The Snow Day

Longing, Lenten.

ISBN:

0810127458

9780810127456

OCLC:

671541182

Publisher Number:

99947735309