Introduction -- 1. The Rarity of Shade -- 2. The Rarity of the Gesture of Small Flowers -- 3. Rarity of Attention -- 4. The Rarity of Dying -- 5. The Density of Suffering -- 6. The Rarity of One's Own Death -- 7. The Rarity of Things -- 8. The Rarity of Accidents -- 9. The Rarity of the Beautiful -- Coda.
Summary:
"Rarity is a quality by which things-flowers, leaves, light, sound-fleetingly appear and disappear, leaving in their wake a resonance of something we just thought we had glimpsed. In this book, the author examines the imaginary or poetic dimensions of rarity. It comes about in the hushed spaces between stanzas, in the pauses between words and lines, in speechlessness. A flower, a silence in a room, a mournfully muttered 'oh, ' thorns and dark seeds, even rugs and tables, a hummingbird, the papery gown of a brother dying, all have rarity. Rilke's phrase 'the gesture of small flowers when they open in the morning' serves as an exemplary image of material and mental rarity."-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.