The black ocean / Brian Barker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barker, Brian, 1973-

Series:

Crab Orchard award series in poetry.

Crab Orchard series in poetry

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry.

Physical Description:

ix, 66 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Crab Orchard Review : Southern Illinois University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In "The Black Ocean," poet Brian Barker attempts to make sense of some of the darkest chapters in history while peering forward to what lies ahead as the world totters in the wake of human complacence. Unveiled here are ruminations on human torture, the Chernobyl disaster, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and genocide against Native Americans. The ghosts of Lincoln, Poe, and Billie Holiday manifest from pages laden with grim prophecies and catastrophes both real and imagined. These hauntingly intense documentary poems reflect on the past in an attempt to approach it with more clarity and understanding, while offering blistering insight into the state of the world today. Barker touches upon the power of manipulation and class oppression; the depths of fear and the struggle for social justice; and reveals how failure to act on the parts of both politicians and everyday citizens can have the most devastating effects of all. Throughout the volume looms the specter of the black ocean itself, a powerful metaphor for all our collective longings and despair, as we turn to face a menacing and uncertain future. Lullaby for the Last Night on Earth When at last we whisper, "so long, so lonesome, " and watch our house on the horizon go down like a gasping zeppelin of bricks, we ll turn, holding hands, and walk the train tracks to the sea . . . So sing me that song where a mountain falls in love with an octopus, and one thousand fireflies ricochet around their heads, and I ll dream we re dancing in the kitchen one last time, swaying, the window a waystation of flaming leaves, the dogs shimmying about our legs, dragging their golden capes of rain . . . "O my critter, my thistle, gal-o-my-dreams, " lift your voice like an oar into the darkness, for all the sad birds are falling down Nothing in this night is ours. "

Contents:

Cover

Book Title

Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

Dragging Canoe Vanishes from the Bear Pit into the Endless Clucking of the Gods

*

Visions for the Last Night on Earth

Poe Climbs Down from the Long Tapestry of Death to Command an Army of Street Urchins Huddled in the Dusk

Lullaby for the Last Night on Earth

The Last Songbird

Gorbachev's Ubi Sunt from the Future That Soon Will Pass

Silent Montage with Late Reagan in Black and White

Love Poem for the Last Night on Earth

In the City of Fallen Rebels

Lost on the Lost Shores of New Orleans, They Dreamed Abraham Lincoln Was the Magician of the Great Divide

Field Recording, Notes from the Machine

Field Recording, Billie Holiday from the Far Edge of Heaven

Nightmare for the Last Night on Earth

A Brief Oral Account of Torture Pulled Down Out of the Wind

Notes

Other Books in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry

Back Cover.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1-280-69809-8

9786613675057

0-8093-8631-3

OCLC:

742517187