Address
5/5
()
About this ebook
Winner of the Laurence L. Thomas Winship / PEN New England Award (2012)
Address draws us into visible and invisible architectures, into acts of intimate and public address. These poems are concentrated, polyvocal, and sharply attentive to acts of representation; they take personally their politics and in the process reveal something about the way civic structures inhabit the imagination. Poisonous plants, witches, anthems, bees—beneath their surface, we glimpse the fragility of our founding, republican aspirations and witness a disintegrating landscape artfully transformed. If a poem can serve as a kind of astrolabe, measuring distances both cosmic and immediate, temporal and physical, it does so by imaginative, nonlinear means. Here, past and present engage in acts of mutual interrogation and critique, and within this dynamic Willis's poetry is at once complexly authoritative and searching: "so begins our legislation."
Check for the online reader's companion at http://address.site.wesleyan.edu.
Related to Address
Related ebooks
Deepstep Come Shining Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Haul Engine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Captain Lands in Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Creature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBender: New and Selected Poems Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Peaches Goes It Alone: Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErasures Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Sally's Hair: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On the Shores of Welcome Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSignage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAreas Lights Heights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTiny Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Bell Zero Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCold Pastoral: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Overland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cinema of the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lisa Robertson's Magenta Soul Whip Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Young Recruit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBy the Time You Read This: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEventually One Dreams the Real Thing Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Useful Junk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBite Hard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shock by Shock Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brand New Spacesuit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHoly Smoke Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mesmerizingly Sadly Beautiful Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Day at the Beach Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Poetry For You
The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Inferno: The Divine Comedy, Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun and Her Flowers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prophet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twenty love poems and a song of despair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Way Forward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad of Homer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Thoughts: An Exploration Of Who We Are Beyond Our Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Everything Writing Poetry Book: A Practical Guide To Style, Structure, Form, And Expression Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (ReadOn Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Collection of Poems by Robert Frost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf: A New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Boys Are Poisonous: Poems Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pillow Thoughts II: Healing the Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Address
2 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Address - Elizabeth Willis
ADDRESS
I is to they
as river is to barge
as convert to picket line
sinker to steamer
The sun belongs to I
once, for an instant
The window belongs to you
leaning on the afternoon
They are to you
as the suffocating disappointment
of the mall
is to the magic rustle
of the word come
Turn left toward the mountain
Go straight until you see
the boat in the driveway
A little warmer, a little stickier
a little more like spring
TAKE THIS POEM
Take this spoon
from me, this
cudgel, this axe
Take this bowl
this kettle, this
continental plate
Take, if you will,
this shallow topsoil
above my bedrock
This swingset
above the topsoil
this raven
from my hair
Take your fear
from its closet
Take this shirt
in need of washing
this unread book
Take this child
this husband, this
teacup, this
provisional weather
Take this pill
with a tall glass
of water, take this
bus deep into
the interior
Take my wife
even if I meant
to keep her
Take my share
I don’t need it
Take as long
as you need to
Take this line
between breathing
and voting
Take this city
Take that expensive
ship across this
cellophane model
of the sea
Take the F train
but not to Brooklyn
Take the case
of the missing cufflinks
Take this beverage
with its silver
Pullman ice
Take me with you
as far as you can go
I won’t cause
any trouble
Take this office
overlooking the people
Take this patience
and burn it to the ground
Take down your
vanities, your hippodrome
your champagne
pyramid
Take down your hair
your curtains, your
razorwire fence