Imaginary vessels / Paisley Rekdal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rekdal, Paisley, author.

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

xii, 119 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Port Townsend, Washington : Copper Canyon Press, [2016]

Summary:

""Compelling, appealing, cinematic. Rekdal refreshes the meaning and the image of being displaced in this world." -The Boston Globe "Rekdal's work deeply satisfies, for it witnesses and wonders over the necessary struggles of human awareness and being." -Rain Taxi "In acknowledging the disappointing facts of our existence and singing her way into its amazement, she has created poetry that lives alongside the misery we sometimes witness-and sometimes cause." -Slate Paisley Rekdal questions how identity and being inhabit metaphorical and personified "vessels," from blown glass and soap bubbles to skulls unearthed at the Colorado State Mental Institution. Whether writing short lyrics or a sonnet sequence celebrating Mae West, Rekdal's intellectually inquisitive and carefully researched poems delight in sound, meter, and head-on engagement. Illustrated with twelve Andrea Modica photographs. From "You're": Vague as fog and turnip-hipped, a creel of eels that slithers in stains. Dirty slate, you're Diamond Lil. She's you, you say. You're her. She's I. O Mae, fifth grade, we dressed in feathers and our mothers' slit pink slips, dipped into your schema and your accent, aspiring (like you) to be able to order coffee and have it sound like filth. Paisley Rekdal is the author of four books of poetry, a book of personal essays, and a mixed media book of photography, poetry, fiction and non-fiction. She lives in Salt Lake City and teaches at the University of Utah"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

I

Murano 5

Bubbles 7

Vessels 11

A Peacock in a Cage 14

At the Fishhouses 16

When it is Over, it Will Be Over 18

Letter From the Pribilofs 21

II Go West

You're 27

Mae West: Advice 28

Marriage 29

Censored 30

Freedom 32

Go West 33

The New Woman 34

Mae West: On Aging 35

"Celebrity" Striptease at Southern X-Posure 36

Confessional 37

Self-Portrait as Mae West One - Liner 38

Never 39

Prayer 40

Envoi 41

III

W.C. Fields Takes a Walk 45

Philip Larkin's Koan 47

Once 48

Saturdays at Reynolds Work Release 50

Olive Oatman in Texas 53

Assemblage of Ruined Plane Parts, Vietnam Military Museum, Hanoi 58

IV Shooting the Skulls: A Wartime Devotional

Portrait of F19: Male, 42 Years Old 63

Portrait of D6: Male, 38 Years Old/B17: Male, 38 Years Old 65

F21: Male, 37 Years Old 67

Devotional 68

Devotional 69

Portrait of F11: Female, 39 Years Old 71

F20: Male, 29 Years Old 73

Portrait of D19: Male, 41 Years Old 75

Portrait of D17: Female, 37 Years Old 77

C18: Male, 36 Years Old 79

Devotional 80

Devotional 81

Portrait of E4: Male, 34 Years Old 83

Devotional 84

Devotional 85

C2: Male, 42 Years Old 87

Portrait of E20: Female, 32 Years Old 89

C11 : Female, 54 Years Old 91

Portrait of B4: Female, 34 Years Old 93

Portrait of C8: Male, 32 Years Old 95

V

Baucis and Philemon 99

Rhetoric 102

Irises 104

Monticello Vase 106

Birthday Poem 109

Mortal Love 111

The History of Paisley 114.

Notes:

"Lannan literary selection."

Includes bibliographical references (page 117).

ISBN:

9781556594977

1556594976

OCLC:

945949126