Sign-In
Cart
Crossroads: Poems
Paperback
Publisher Price: $19.95
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0807117544
ISBN13: 9780807117545
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: Feb 1 1994
Pages: 64
Weight: 0.23
Height: 0.30 Width: 5.52 Depth: 8.47
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780807117545
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: Feb 1 1994
Pages: 64
Weight: 0.23
Height: 0.30 Width: 5.52 Depth: 8.47
Language: English
In his twelfth book of original verse David R. Slavitt leads us to a crossroads where terror, loneliness, and despair are transfigured by love and art.
Much of the collection centers on the poet's family history. In the title poem, Slavitt imagines the dour landscape of the Polish hamlet his grandparents left in search of a safer haven, at the same time that he reflects ruefully on the hazards of contemporary life in America: but what they abandoned is what I dream of now, asleep, while people who don't even know my name
monitor consoles that show what zones in my house have been violated--what doors
or windows opened, or motion sensors tripped
by the cat or some intruder. On the street, cars
are stolen and stripped by desperate men, wild children . . . Who can say? In another poem, he recalls his mother and his discovery only after her death--her murder--that the name she had been given was not Adele but Ida. As a young woman she had chosen to call herself something not too cute, but not too plain, not Ida. And it is Adele he decides on for her grave marker, in deference to her whimsical and brave spirit. Not only family but also the worlds of art, music, and literature animate Slavitt's verses--from a consideration of the modes of salvation suggested by El Grenco's and Goy's paintings of Saint Peter to a reflection upon our common response to a discordantly tuned instrument, from echoes of Paradise Lost to witty and deft variations on Catullus. Throughout this collection David Slavitt's keen intelligence, wry humor, and deep compassion shine through. Crossroads allows us to observe a poet working at the peak of his powers.
monitor consoles that show what zones in my house have been violated--what doors
or windows opened, or motion sensors tripped
by the cat or some intruder. On the street, cars
are stolen and stripped by desperate men, wild children . . . Who can say? In another poem, he recalls his mother and his discovery only after her death--her murder--that the name she had been given was not Adele but Ida. As a young woman she had chosen to call herself something not too cute, but not too plain, not Ida. And it is Adele he decides on for her grave marker, in deference to her whimsical and brave spirit. Not only family but also the worlds of art, music, and literature animate Slavitt's verses--from a consideration of the modes of salvation suggested by El Grenco's and Goy's paintings of Saint Peter to a reflection upon our common response to a discordantly tuned instrument, from echoes of Paradise Lost to witty and deft variations on Catullus. Throughout this collection David Slavitt's keen intelligence, wry humor, and deep compassion shine through. Crossroads allows us to observe a poet working at the peak of his powers.
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Alighieri, Dante
Pitavy, Francois
Paperback
$33.00
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
$19.94
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Lao Tzu
Paperback
$17.06
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
$18.05
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover
$24.70