In a landscape : poetry / by John Gallaher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gallaher, John, 1965- author.

Series:

American poets continuum series ; v. 146.

American Poets continuum series ; no. 146

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

128 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Rochester, NY : BOA Editions Ltd., 2014.

Summary:

"Falling somewhere between a "diary-poem," a "daybook," "autobiography-in-verse," and an "essay-poem," In a Landscape is noted poet and critic John Gallaher's most personal, straightforward, and revealing book yet. In lyric-prose that continuously circles the questions it raises, Gallaher sloughs off the garb of "poet" to address life questions in a way that few poets of his generation have been willing to risk. Family, death, adoption, children, parents, high school, music. Gallaher's subjects carry weight because of their absolute commonness.John Gallaher is assistant professor of English at Northwest Missouri State University, and co-editor of the Laurel Review. "-- Provided by publisher.

"This is a book of original American poetry"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

I "Are you happy?" That's a good place to start, or maybe,

II "Ghosts are people who think they're ghosts,"

III It appears that we're living (which isn't always the case), depending

IV Now the scene changes, we say, and the next few years

V Offers of help most often just end up complicating matters. That's been

VI What's the most earnest you've ever been? Perhaps this

VII "Changes that are characteristic of a living room

VIII Are we on the right track? Should it have been

IX "What would you like?" the waitress asks. And really,

X The earth, friends, is doing fine. We're the ones in danger,

XI We do, as we say, what has to be done. The way things

XII Roman numerals don't do much for people

XIII How many people haven't you married, that you thought

XIV I just forgot how to count in Roman numerals, and had to look it up

XV It's a nice idea, to think we might have no effect

XVI The early bird might get the worm, but the early person

XVII In another sense, we're foreign to each other. We say we're

XVIII "All animals have interests," I'm reading in an overview

XIX It's our Indian Summer weekend, coming up

XX The prompt is that you're supposed to imagine

XXI In heaven, according to Kurt Vonnegut's

XXII "When Yer Twenty-Two" is an early song from The Flaming Lips,

XXIII One of the best things about life

XXIV "Is being aware of our limitlessness freeing or restraining?" I just

XXV To review, I'm thinking that cataloging one's life is a sort of other-living,

XXVI What does it mean to be useful? To be a useful person? My son's

XXVII "There are flowers in the dirt

XXVIII "It changes you," they say about a lot of different things,

XXIX "The idea just came to me one day," or, better,

XXX I've just been invited to read "A Book of Truths

XXXI Whenever I see the Roman numeral XXX

XXXII The other night we drove downtown and something was on fire

XXXIII All faces tend to have a permanent expression,

XXXIV If things contain their opposites, why bother? That suffices, I guess,

XXXV Do you do these things, or do these things do you? It's the same old

XXXVI What year, what moment was it, when all the television aerials

XXXVII I think "getting out of the way" is a great way to be helpful

XXXVIII Wherever I get to, someone's there. It's a busy place,

XXXIX "And every one of us, a kitten up a tree," It's a line

XL Four of us are here at the moment. Will this

XLI If only you could burn memories in a little pile

XLII I changed my mind. I was going to stop writing this poem, but now

XLIII What Social Security means to me is that if I continue working

XLIV "Is our ability to have confidence in another owing more to others

XLV Life gives us numerous opportunities to practice counting. Five years

XLVI Answer the question with a Yes or No. Indeed. Because

XLVII Where's the fun in doing something you've done a million times? Well,

XLVIII What is the reason for harboring ill-will toward another?

XLIX The college mascot is visiting the elementary school. It's

L "L" for landscape, where all of us are having different

LI "Be proud of who you are

LII None of these things is ever quite it. In much

LIII "Have you had a good life?" Good question. In the grand scheme

LIV Where's the line between what constitutes repetition

LV Looking at each other just now, which is the intrusion:

LVI The landscape is on fire, and where are you

LVII There are stories we don't tell, for whatever reason. Mostly

LVIII Richard's back, talking about Easy Riders and Raging Bulls,

LIX Most things aren't necessary. So? Are we to impoverish ourselves

LX Improving our circumstances has been a stalled idea

LXI I want a house with a lot of windows, and all the windows

LXII Is your life the series of events

LXIII Why not love pictures? Each time they come back,

LXIV When one studies math, they say that what's important

LXV Tonight's program is Clandestinophilia, insisting

LXVI On the airline, I sat next to the woman with the young child,

LXVII Is there anything that isn't hit or miss? After the believing game

LXVIII There's always a point at which each of us says

LXIX The new thing. There's always got to be one, because

LXX What does a person need, finally? What, specifically,

LXXI Kings, they say, need reminding, but I don't think so, at least.

ISBN:

9781938160509

1938160509

OCLC:

878812661