If the house / Molly Spencer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spencer, Molly, author.

Series:

Wisconsin poetry series

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

x, 82 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2019]

Summary:

In this collection, well-known spaces both reassure and imperil, and language both anchors and disorients. Molly Spencer's poems navigate the landscapes of human experience, building upon the cycles of a household throughout the seasons of the year. Ordinary places and things-a kitchen table, a memory, a beloved's thigh-are viewed as if through the lens of a shifting, unsettling kaleidoscope. This incisive volume suggests that the comfort we find in familiarity and routine belies the unease that lingers beneath. Book jacket.

Contents:

I

If I tell you everything, maybe as day fades p. 3

Conversation with Lace Thong and Car Keys p. 4

Conversation with Glass and Joist p. 5

Silences: snowfall p. 6

Grisaille | August p. 8

Because I want to give them more than the small, gray stone p. 9

Moving Day p. 11

Love at These Coordinates p. 12

Disclosures | If you are aware of any settling p. 13

II

Interior with a Woman Peeling Oranges, Snapping Beans p. 17

There Is Only One Word for Snow, but I Want More p. 23

Tentative Theories p. 24

Elegy with Edge Effects p. 25

Meditation at Fishtown p. 26

Meadow | A Reckoning p. 28

III

Night Repairs p. 37

Conversation with Shower and Vestibule p. 38

Disclosures | If you are aware of any shared features p. 39

Disclosures | If you are aware of any nuisance animals such as crows, chickens, or barking dogs p. 40

Elegy Beginning with a Text from My Brother p. 42

As if life can go on as it has p. 44

Even so, the first bird p. 45

Elegy at the Strandline p. 47

Nocturne p. 48

Conversation with Distance and Shaking p. 49

IV

Litany p. 53

Bridging p. 54

Meditation at Ice-Out p. 58

V

Love Story p. 61

Disclosures | If the house is built on a hillside p. 63

In Southeast Lower Michigan, a Chance of Snow after Midnight p. 64

Vestige p. 65

Aubade p. 67

Address to the Meadow in the Dusk p. 68

Frank Next Door p. 69

Conversation with Windows and Green p. 72

How to Love the New House p. 74

I Talk Myself through the Facts of Each Day p. 75.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 77-79).

ISBN:

9780299325947

0299325946

OCLC:

1089840653