How to love a country : poems / Richard Blanco.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blanco, Richard, 1968- author.

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--21st century.

American poetry.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

iii, 80 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Beacon Press, [2019]

Summary:

"The diverse poems in this collection form a mosaic of seemingly varied topics: the Pulse Nightclub massacre; an unexpected encounter on a visit to Cuba; the forced exile of 8,500 Navajos in 1868; the arrival of a young Chinese woman at Angel Island in 1938; the incarceration of a gifted writer; and the poet's abiding love for his partner, who he is finally allowed to wed. But despite each poem's unique subject matter or occasion, all are fundamentally asking one overwhelming question: how to love this country? Seeking answers, Blanco digs deep into the very marrow of our nation--our cities and towns--with poems that interrogate our past and present, grieve our injustices and note our flaws, yet remember to celebrate our ideals and cling to our hopes. Blanco unravels the very fabric of the American narrative, pursuing a resolution to the inherent contradiction of our nation's psyche and mandate: e pluribus unum (out of many, one), charged with the utopian idea that no single narrative is more important than another, and that America could and ought someday to be a county where all narratives converge into one. A country in which we can all truly thrive and truly love"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Election year

Dreaming a wall

Complaint of El Rio Grande

Como tu/Like you/Like me

Staring at Aspens: a history lesson

Letter from Yi Cheung

Leaving in the rain: Limerick, Ireland

Island body

What we didn't know about Cuba

Matters of the sea

Mother country

My father in English, indeed

El americano in the mirror

Using country in a sentence

American wandersong

Imaginary exile

November eyes

Let's remake America great

Easy lynching on Herndon Avenue

Poetry assignment #4: what do you miss most?

St. Louis: prayer before dawn

Until we could

Between [another door]

Pulse-one poem

Funerals

Remembering Boston strong

America the beautiful again

What I know of country

St. Louis: prayer at dawn

Now without me

And so we all fall down

Cloud anthem.

Other Format:

Online version: Blanco, Richard, 1968- author. How to love a country

ISBN:

9780807025918

0807025917

OCLC:

1043141209