The echo of ice letting go / Julie Hungiville LeMay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

LeMay, Julie Hungiville, 1954-2019, author.

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

ix, 94 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Fairbanks, AK : University of Alaska Press, [2017]

Summary:

Rooted in the harsh, yet beautiful landscape of Alaska, this collection of poems is at once comforting and disquieting, permeated with wisdom, darkness, and resilience. Taken together, the poems form a powerful narrative, as Julie Hungiville LeMay relates a personal story of the recurrence of cancer and interweaves it with an account of her son's struggle with addiction. In a world of so much pain, her poems ask, how can we find meaning? The answer, often, is nature: among "spruce branches that whisper" and "the yellow joy / of warblers." Half-found poems inspired by John Muir essays are placed throughout the book like touchstones, while other poems invoke the spirit of Wordsworth. LeMay's voice is precise and clear, her lines musical and sonically rich, making this ambitious, wide-ranging book one that readers won't soon forget. Book jacket.

Contents:

I

Tosca Lived a Good Life 1

In the Belly of the Whale 2

A New Toolbox 3

Recent Blood Tests Are Indicative of a Cancer Recurrence 5

What I Lost That Day in Gifford, Pennsylvania 6

No More Words 8

What Meaning 9

Not a Fairy-Tale Ending 10

Dear Becky 12

I Drowned 14

Half-Found John Muir Poem #4 15

River of Mercy 16

II

Winter Rain 23

Half-Found John Muir Poem #5 24

Spargania magnoliata 25

On a Summer Day after My Son and I Witness a Young Man's Drowning 27

What Is Gathered and What Is Lost 28

Walking Home 30

More Ache than the Sea 31

The Anchorage Jail 32

Emergency Room, Wednesday 4pm 34

Inside Out 35

His Sadness Is a Lake 36

These Mountains Are Long-Extinct Volcanoes 38

Near Power Creek: After a Marriage 40

Looking out the Window on a Winter Morning 43

Still 44

Anniversary: My Parents' Marriage 45

Redpolls in Winter 47

III

Mythography of the Wolf's Sorrow or An Alternative Rendering of the Romulus and Remus Legend 51

Trinity 56

Tosca, Act V 57

Here the Promise 58

Only Winter 59

Reincarnate 60

I Bow 62

Kashin-Beck Disease Is Endemic to Tibet 63

Who Will Speak of Lhasa? 64

Faith 66

All Things Are Transient 67

Dr. Anderson Called and the News Isn't Good 69

This Body Is Baggage I'm Not Yet Ready to Leave Behind 72

IV

This Is a Raging Wind 75

Since June 76

Walk on Water 77

Half-Found John Muir Poem #1 79

Ge(ne)ology 80

Half-Found John Muir Poem #2 82

On a Summer Day 83

Sun like a Daffodil 85

A Light in Winter 86

Half-Found John Muir Poem#3 88

Remission 89

Half-Found Li Shang-yin Poem 90

Tomorrow Is a White Flag 91

Unravel 93

Sky Burial 94.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781602233119

160223311X

OCLC:

953738415