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"Reading these poems is an uncanny experience. . . . We enter into this book alert to possibility, and leave knowing how asleep we've been."—Nick Flynn
Of all the meanings of exposed I think my favorite
is the raw nerve shivering bug-like in the lamp light
while the surgeon arranges his dainty knives.
You can get close to that. You can brush
its wriggling limb and hear the scream.
You can lie there on the table, say,
"little nerve oh nerve it'll
be all right; there
there, there there.
Price: $14.95
Pages: 65
Publisher: Sarabande Books
Imprint: Sarabande Books
Series: Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry
Publication Date:
16 December 2014
Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.50 in
ISBN: 9781936747931
Format: Paperback
Sean Bishop: Sean Bishop is a recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing’s Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship. He coordinates the MFA and Fellowship programs in creative writing at the University of Wisconsin.
Foreword by Susan Mitchell — vii
1
Adam Before the Advent of Psychiatry — 6
A Bit of Forgiveness — 7
Reading Dante in the ICU — 9
Adam Explains His Implications — 11
Adam Home from the Wars — 13
Here’s to Killing — 14
Adam Relates the Last Days of Rome — 17
Adam Explains the Origin — 18
Red Shift — 19
Adam Reports from the Distant Future — 22
2
Black Hole Owners Association — 25
Letter to Toss from the Airborne Plane — 28
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [our fathers are liars.] — 30
What I Asked For — 31
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [once I believed if I wore my sadness] — 33
On Believing the Night Has an End When the Night [...] — 34
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [once more our old wounds] — 36
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [have you been the unwinged thing] — 37
At the Optometrist’s I Almost Remember a Story […] — 38
Theory of Cruelty — 40
Lake Bobby — 41
3
TO THROW THE LITTLE BONES THAT SPEAK
I. [Jack of Hearts, Jack of the weakest ventricle] — 45
II. [Let’s say the heebie-jeebies are a kind of flea] — 46
III. [My little hooked pickerels, just look] — 47
IV. [Edge of the bright earth] — 48
VI. [The last—give or take—forever I’ve spent] — 49
VII. [Ladies and gents, if you look to your left] — 50
VIII. [From a list of great evils I’ve chosen the best] — 51
IX. [Karen you promised you’d come but didn’t] — 52
4
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [please join me in compiling] — 55
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [some of us are cured] — 56
Joe Cuomo, Local Weatherman, Tests the Old Idea of Heaven — 57
About to Hope — 59
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [I’ve come a long way] — 60
Last Supper — 61
Notes Toward Basic Betterness — 64
1
Adam Before the Advent of Psychiatry — 6
A Bit of Forgiveness — 7
Reading Dante in the ICU — 9
Adam Explains His Implications — 11
Adam Home from the Wars — 13
Here’s to Killing — 14
Adam Relates the Last Days of Rome — 17
Adam Explains the Origin — 18
Red Shift — 19
Adam Reports from the Distant Future — 22
2
Black Hole Owners Association — 25
Letter to Toss from the Airborne Plane — 28
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [our fathers are liars.] — 30
What I Asked For — 31
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [once I believed if I wore my sadness] — 33
On Believing the Night Has an End When the Night [...] — 34
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [once more our old wounds] — 36
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [have you been the unwinged thing] — 37
At the Optometrist’s I Almost Remember a Story […] — 38
Theory of Cruelty — 40
Lake Bobby — 41
3
TO THROW THE LITTLE BONES THAT SPEAK
I. [Jack of Hearts, Jack of the weakest ventricle] — 45
II. [Let’s say the heebie-jeebies are a kind of flea] — 46
III. [My little hooked pickerels, just look] — 47
IV. [Edge of the bright earth] — 48
VI. [The last—give or take—forever I’ve spent] — 49
VII. [Ladies and gents, if you look to your left] — 50
VIII. [From a list of great evils I’ve chosen the best] — 51
IX. [Karen you promised you’d come but didn’t] — 52
4
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [please join me in compiling] — 55
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [some of us are cured] — 56
Joe Cuomo, Local Weatherman, Tests the Old Idea of Heaven — 57
About to Hope — 59
Secret Fellow Sufferers, [I’ve come a long way] — 60
Last Supper — 61
Notes Toward Basic Betterness — 64