Narcissus Americana : poems / by Travis Mossotti.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mossotti, Travis, author.

Series:

Miller Williams poetry prize.

Miller Williams poetry series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--21st century.

American poetry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Fayetteville : The University of Arkansas Press, 2018.

Summary:

Winner, 2018 Miller Williams Poetry Prize Narcissus Americana sings and scraps and wrestles its way across various landscapes-abandoned quarries, art museums, lavish homes, and tar pits-in a quest to attain a more complex vision of what it means to be upwardly mobile. These poems question the usefulness of wealth and ownership as markers of success. Taking wine fridges and fake flowers as emblems of capitalism's failure to assuage human loneliness, the speakers in these poems find joy in shared meals and glasses of wine, and use moments of mutual attention to challenge notions of class in America. Intimacy is on display in "Cruising Altitude, " where the speaker finds a sublime communion between two disparate worldviews during an in-flight conversation with his father: I ask if his certainty about humanity's course gives his life some kind of purpose. He doesn't sleep well. I know this. I quote Yeats. He quotes scripture. Light balances on the wing and casts its yellow spell.... Sharply written, and with an eye for form, these poems engage with heavy inquiry but also know better than to take themselves too seriously, making it possible for, say, dungeons to share space with donuts, as in the poem "Rancho La Brea." Mossotti's timely book invites the reader to traverse America, and see the nation anew, on a journey marked simultaneously by critical scrutiny and deep affection.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Series Editor's Preface

Acknowledgments

Reading Machiavelli

Part One

The Colony at Malibu

Manifest Destiny

Foreclosure

Community College

Bridgeton Landfill Fire

Natural Selection

Black Hole Camaro Enters the Mojave

Kingdom Condom

The Mulberry Tree

About the Living

Union Break

Going Home Again

The Abandoned Quarry

Mourning Heather

Sitting Alone in the Dark

Part Two

Little Saigon Café: Com Chiên

Déjà Entendu

Volcano

When Spring Comes

Wine Fridge

Fake Flowers

Yesterday

Sacrificial Poem

Rancho La Brea

Greyed Rainbow

On Being Here

Narcissus Americana

Joint with Christine at a Tool Concert

Modern Agriculture

Translator's Note

Even Now

Part Three

Thanksgiving

The Nature of Mannequins

Poets in Hollywood

Playing Cornhole

Cigar

The Caretaker's Resignation

Putting Money First

The Escape Artist

From the Treadmill

One Act: Opening Night

Acres of Time

Game Called on Account of Rain

Cruising Altitude

Notes.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

"2018 winner, Miller Williams poetry prize"

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781610756310

1610756312

OCLC:

1010494537