The park / John Freeman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freeman, John, 1974- author.

Contributor:

Laura Jan Meyerson Poetry Fund.

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

pages cm

Place of Publication:

Port Townsend, Washington : Copper Canyon Press, [2020]

Summary:

"In The Park, his second book of poetry, John Freeman uses a park as a petri dish, turning a deep gaze on all that pass through it. In language both precise and restrained, Freeman explores the inherent contradictions that arise from a place whose purpose is derived purely from what we bring to it--a park is both natural and constructed, exclusionary and open, unfeeling and burdened with sentimentality. Pulling from both history and his own meditations in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, the seasons pass through famous parks, personal parks, parks beneath parks, and other spaces with fabricated outer limits. Throughout, Freeman wonders at how a park, being both curated and public, can be a nexus for a manifestation of great wealth inequality. How have we created these false boundaries for ourselves--with regard to physical space, but also in our minds and societies, in our personal relationships? Freeman plucks out difference in small daily dramas of people and animals only to dissolve it. Interspersed with meditations on love, beauty, and connection, The Park is a pacific and unflinching mirror cast upon a space defined by its transience"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

I

Modern Gods p. 7

Unfinished p. 8

Visitors p. 10

The Ex-Basketball Players p. 12

Separation p. 14

Open All Night p. 15

Almost Snowing p. 17

Seeing Things p. 18

The Death Givers p. 19

Translation in Paris p. 20

The City Without p. 21

In a Bucharest Journal p. 22

Winter Diary p. 23

The Politician p. 24

Reprieve p. 26

II

Signs p. 29

On Love p. 30

Birds p. 31

Weight p. 32

Teacher p. 34

Ordering a Café in Paris p. 36

Somewhere You Are Sleeping p. 37

Why Paris Is Not the West p. 38

Another Meal p. 39

The Gargantuan Arm p. 40

Halfway p. 42

The Hand of Fate p. 43

III

The Pool p. 47

Sharing p. 48

Erasures p. 49

Charity p. 50

The Waltz p. 51

Ghost p. 52

Crow p. 53

Remember, Forget p. 54

The Hand p. 55

Youth p. 56

Endless p. 57

Chosen p. 58

Walks in the Dark p. 59

A Moment in Time p. 60

The Missing p. 62

Love Letter p. 63

IV

Easement p. 67

Song of the Songs p. 70

On Memory & Desire p. 71

The Abacus p. 75

Between p. 76

Choice p. 77

Hands p. 78

Stitch p. 79

The Folded Wing p. 80

Light p. 81

Dinner at the End of the World p. 82

Marriage p. 83

Paris at Night p. 84.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Laura Jan Meyerson Poetry Fund.

ISBN:

9781556595950

1556595956

OCLC:

1119443965

Publisher Number:

99984253010