After-music : poems / by Conrad Hilberry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hilberry, Conrad.

Series:

Made in Michigan writers series.

Made in Michigan writers series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (152 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Detroit : Wayne State University Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A new collection by esteemed Michigan poet Conrad Hilberry, his sixth full-length book of poetry. After-Music is a varied and rich collection of meditations on both the personal and universal. Among the many intriguing places, people, and events that Hilberry brings to life in these poems are watching manatees in a Florida canal, a reluctant priest blessing the animals in Mexico, a rushed and sullen checkout girl in the supermarket, and Day of the Dead skeletons that form a mariachi band. Some poems are formal-in sonnets, quatrains, and tetrameter couples-but most are free verse, all of them accessible and enjoyable reading. This collection is divided into five sections, organized by theme. The first and last sections are the most personal and contemplative, from the soul at season's end in "Open" to the moon about to speak in "Silence." In revealing and inviting confessions, the second section lets readers listen in on the thoughts of objects, including an oboe, a cherry pie, a moustache, a mousetrap, and a waning moon. The third section looks at horseshoe crabs, dust mites, memories stored in the hippocampus, creatures steering by pheromones through the sexual dark. The fourth section offers twelve Christmas poems, containing varied voices and a fresh look at that occasion-something few poems have attempted since Eliot's "Journey of the Magi." Hilberry's poetry bridges the gap between the ethereal realm of the spirit and the stark realism of the material world. Poetry lovers and teachers and students of contemporary verse will enjoy this significant volume.

Contents:

Cover

CONTENTS

1. SWEET GREASE

Mario

Moon

A Bird

Numbers

Winter Solstice

Variations on Antonio Machado's "Caminante"

Let's Say I'm Sad

Open

Black Car Blues

Blessing the Animals

After-Music

2. HOW THE JUICES LEAP

Oboe

Egg

Poker

Clue

Passenger-Side Mirror

Cherry Pie

Quatrain

Moustache

Alarm Clock

Runoff

Hunch

Negative Space

Mousetrap

Electric Collar

Small Gray Box with Three Wires

Deaf Ear

Waning Moon

3. STEERING BY PHEROMONES

Early Storm

A Clutch of Mammals

Path to the Cabin

Scramble Competition Polygyny

Dust Mites

The Fly

Hippocampus

Exits

4. ONE MATCH FLARING

Wise Man

Joseph

The Animals

Adam's Christmas

The Woman from Chiapas

Christmas, Mexico

Script for a Cold Christmas

Elevator Music

Christmas Night

Midnight

December 26

Shepherd

5. BIRD WITH THE DOWNCAST BEAK

Self-Portrait as Waterfall

Finding the Way

Crete: the Diktaean Cave

Daughter in New york

Blood Work

Radiation

The Visit

Hurtle

No Clocks

Pelican

A Dialogue between the Body and Soul

Music

Silence

AUTHOR 'S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

9780814335222

0814335225

OCLC:

757543805