If you can tell / James McMichael.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McMichael, James, 1939- author.

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry.

Genre:

American poetry.

Poetry.

Physical Description:

77 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.

Summary:

If You Can Tell, the new book of poems by James McMichael, a finalist for the National Book Award in 2006, takes up what it might mean that the word was in the beginning, before which there may not have been "empty / space, / even, / nor the thought of it." A baby is conceived after a verbal exchange between his parents. He's born and learns to talk. Told that the grandfather he cherishes has died, he unknowingly silences any memory of the man. To his Sunday school class a few years later, he tells the lie that he himself was born in China. The boy grows up into a vexing faith. Though he expects his own death will be final, God is no less God to him in the life he's been given and must in time give back.

Contents:

The believed in

Exchange

Heard said

Silence

Wisdom

Of Paul

Pasts

Hidden.

ISBN:

9780374175184

0374175187

OCLC:

910914847

Publisher Number:

40025781602