The Beforelife: Poems By Franz Wright.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wright, Franz

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century.

American poetry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.

Summary:

"In this stunning collection, Franz Wright chronicles the journey back from a place of isolation and wordlessness. After a period when it seemed certain he would never write poetry again, he speaks with bracing clarity about the twilit world that lies between madness and sanity, addiction and recovery. Wright negotiates the precarious transition from illness to health in a state of skeptical rapture, discovering along the way the exhilaration of love--both divine and human--and finding that even the most battered consciousness can be good company. Whether he is writing about his regret for the abortion of a child, describing the mechanics of slander ("I can just hear them on the telephone and keening all their kissy little knives"), or composing an ironic ode to himself ("To a Blossoming Nut Case"), Wright's poems are exquisitely precise. Charles Simic has characterized him as a poetic miniaturist, whose "secret ambition is to write an epic on the inside of a matchbook cover." Time and again, Wright turns on a dime in a few brief lines, exposing the dark comedy and poignancy of his heightened perception"--From publisher description.

Contents:

Empty Cathedral

Prescription

Translation

November 14

Memoir

Written with a Baseball Bat-Sized Pencil

Not Now

The Dead Dads

The Midnight Snack

I'm Sorry

The Ascent of Midnight

Body Bag

The Beforelife

Thanks Prayer at the Cove

Accepting an Award

Address Search

Based on a Prayer of Rabi'a al-Adawiyya

First Encounter/The City

The Neighbor

The Wedding

Entry & Prayer

The Poem Said

New Page

Doing a Line of Olga Broumas

Communion

After Apollinaire

I for One

Description of Her Eyes

Tibetans Raped by Chinese Robots

From a Discarded Image

Self-Portrait at 40

Scrolling Marquee

Bathtub Improv

Resurrection: Elegy

Simultaneous Sentences

Goodbye

Slander

Aesthetic

When You See Fame Coming Run

The Speaker

Church

Commercial for Absence

Thinking of France

The Way We Look to Them

The Miracle

Request

Homage

To a Blossoming Nut Case

Learning a Language

Fine Print

Primogeniture

Moving

Planting

PC Lullaby

Dying Thought Near the Summit

Empty Stage

Clarification

Nothingsville, MN

Notes:

Preliminaries omitted.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-307-55457-0

1-299-13159-X

OCLC:

1155935410