The road. III. Squatters -- Bryshen and the burning house -- Goodbye-harvest -- The river of the given -- Reconstruction -- Mist burial -- Dogmoon -- Assets -- Again is the first time -- Ghosts -- Study for two figures -- Elegy in which I am awake ; II. New Year on a pleasure island -- The island -- The crystal cove -- Stratis the sailor at Eleusis -- Persephone -- Lord's Prayer -- Blodeuwedd in the garden -- Phthisis: a letter -- The temple -- After a suicide -- Ephesus -- The hermit, having a lantern ; III. Salt -- Flamenco -- Strange abundance -- Spell to divert a summer -- Alexandria duet -- Ars poetica -- Ellipsoidal -- Rabbit the first -- The longing room -- Ode to future thirst -- Gion -- The road.
Summary:
"In his debut collection, Brian Sneeden presents a poetry that is equal parts spell and song, invoking scenes from the Greek islands, the loam-clotted fields of the antebellum South, and the city which emerges, like Cavafy's city of memory, from the filaments of loss. These poems reach forwards and backwards in time, staging reweavings of such familiar myths as Persephone and Demeter, alongside contemporary myths of selfhood--while at all times conjuring and dispelling the alcoves, the porticoes, and the nearly shadowed rooms of the metaphysical city the self creates, and carries, from life to life."-- Distributor's website.
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.