About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherSarabande Books, Incorporated

ISBN-101946448605

ISBN-139781946448606

eBay Product ID (ePID)20038524245

Product Key Features

Book TitleAfter the Body : New and Selected Poems

Number of Pages160 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicWomen Authors

Publication Year2020

GenrePoetry

AuthorCleopatra Mathis

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.6 in

Item Weight14.8 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2019-032576

Reviews"Beginning with her astonishing first book, Aerial View of Louisiana , in 1979, and now with her moving and poignant group of new poems, Cleopatra Mathis has surveyed and charted with ever-increasing lyric concision and dramatic intensity 'the ritual ground work' of human need. From book to book, Mathis demonstrates how memory extends its 'first claim' to include not only the mythic richness of her childhood in Louisiana but also the contrasting and complicating joy and grief of her life in New England as a transplanted Southerner. The resolute heart and keen human insights found everywhere in After the Body: New and Selected Poems renew the 'claim' many readers of contemporary American poetry have made for decades, that Cleopatra Mathis is one of our most important and essential poets." -- Michael Collier, New England Book Awards Finalist "Must-Read Poetry: July 2020," The Millions "Over the last four decades, Mathis ( Book of Dog ) has quietly crafted lyrically precise, often harrowing poems in which the poet's 'throat is a long avenue of ice,/ cutting the familiar good words/ at their source.' This generous volume draws from the poet's recorded gifts and losses: poems of early and late motherhood, a child's mental illness and institutionalization, human and nonhuman deaths within and beyond the poet's purview. . . .In these knowing poems, readers may recognize their own humanity, as well as the sometimes-impossible conditions of living." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "An excellent collection that leads with her new poems, finely attuned to the body and aging." -- The Millions , "Must-Read Poetry: July 2020" "In reading this superb collection, I was often reminded of the closing of Randall Jarrell's '90 North,' a poem of doubt and regret that somehow manages to quietly triumph over its bitterness. 'Pain comes from the darkness. / And we call it wisdom. It is pain.' Mathis's poems, like so many of Jarrell's, insist that pain and wisdom are often bafflingly symbiotic: they have learned to live with this injustice, and do so with a bravery and emotional depth that is sadly rare among contemporary poets." -- On the Seawall "Beginning with her astonishing first book, Aerial View of Louisiana , in 1979, and now with her moving and poignant group of new poems, Cleopatra Mathis has surveyed and charted with ever-increasing lyric concision and dramatic intensity 'the ritual ground work' of human need. From book to book, Mathis demonstrates how memory extends its 'first claim' to include not only the mythic richness of her childhood in Louisiana but also the contrasting and complicating joy and grief of her life in New England as a transplanted Southerner. The resolute heart and keen human insights found everywhere in After the Body: New and Selected Poems renew the 'claim' many readers of contemporary American poetry have made for decades, that Cleopatra Mathis is one of our most important and essential poets." -- Michael Collier, "Must-Read Poetry: July 2020," The Millions "Over the last four decades, Mathis ( Book of Dog ) has quietly crafted lyrically precise, often harrowing poems in which the poet's 'throat is a long avenue of ice,/ cutting the familiar good words/ at their source.' This generous volume draws from the poet's recorded gifts and losses: poems of early and late motherhood, a child's mental illness and institutionalization, human and nonhuman deaths within and beyond the poet's purview. . . .In these knowing poems, readers may recognize their own humanity, as well as the sometimes-impossible conditions of living." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "An excellent collection that leads with her new poems, finely attuned to the body and aging." -- The Millions , "Must-Read Poetry: July 2020" "Beginning with her astonishing first book, Aerial View of Louisiana , in 1979, and now with her moving and poignant group of new poems, Cleopatra Mathis has surveyed and charted with ever-increasing lyric concision and dramatic intensity 'the ritual ground work' of human need. From book to book, Mathis demonstrates how memory extends its 'first claim' to include not only the mythic richness of her childhood in Louisiana but also the contrasting and complicating joy and grief of her life in New England as a transplanted Southerner. The resolute heart and keen human insights found everywhere in After the Body: New and Selected Poems renew the 'claim' many readers of contemporary American poetry have made for decades, that Cleopatra Mathis is one of our most important and essential poets." -- Michael Collier, "Over the last four decades, Mathis ( Book of Dog ) has quietly crafted lyrically precise, often harrowing poems in which the poet's 'throat is a long avenue of ice,/ cutting the familiar good words/ at their source.' This generous volume draws from the poet's recorded gifts and losses: poems of early and late motherhood, a child's mental illness and institutionalization, human and nonhuman deaths within and beyond the poet's purview. . . .In these knowing poems, readers may recognize their own humanity, as well as the sometimes-impossible conditions of living." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "Beginning with her astonishing first book, Aerial View of Louisiana , in 1979, and now with her moving and poignant group of new poems, Cleopatra Mathis has surveyed and charted with ever-increasing lyric concision and dramatic intensity 'the ritual ground work' of human need. From book to book, Mathis demonstrates how memory extends its 'first claim' to include not only the mythic richness of her childhood in Louisiana but also the contrasting and complicating joy and grief of her life in New England as a transplanted Southerner. The resolute heart and keen human insights found everywhere in After the Body: New and Selected Poems renew the 'claim' many readers of contemporary American poetry have made for decades, that Cleopatra Mathis is one of our most important and essential poets." -- Michael Collier, New England Book Awards Finalist "Must-Read Poetry: July 2020," The Millions "Over the last four decades, Mathis ( Book of Dog ) has quietly crafted lyrically precise, often harrowing poems in which the poet's 'throat is a long avenue of ice,/ cutting the familiar good words/ at their source.' This generous volume draws from the poet's recorded gifts and losses: poems of early and late motherhood, a child's mental illness and institutionalization, human and nonhuman deaths within and beyond the poet's purview. . . .In these knowing poems, readers may recognize their own humanity, as well as the sometimes-impossible conditions of living." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "An excellent collection that leads with her new poems, finely attuned to the body and aging." -- The Millions , "Must-Read Poetry: July 2020" "[D]eeply moving, beautiful." -- Literary North , online "In reading this superb collection, I was often reminded of the closing of Randall Jarrell's '90 North,' a poem of doubt and regret that somehow manages to quietly triumph over its bitterness. 'Pain comes from the darkness. / And we call it wisdom. It is pain.' Mathis's poems, like so many of Jarrell's, insist that pain and wisdom are often bafflingly symbiotic: they have learned to live with this injustice, and do so with a bravery and emotional depth that is sadly rare among contemporary poets." -- On the Seawall "Beginning with her astonishing first book, Aerial View of Louisiana , in 1979, and now with her moving and poignant group of new poems, Cleopatra Mathis has surveyed and charted with ever-increasing lyric concision and dramatic intensity 'the ritual ground work' of human need. From book to book, Mathis demonstrates how memory extends its 'first claim' to include not only the mythic richness of her childhood in Louisiana but also the contrasting and complicating joy and grief of her life in New England as a transplanted Southerner. The resolute heart and keen human insights found everywhere in After the Body: New and Selected Poems renew the 'claim' many readers of contemporary American poetry have made for decades, that Cleopatra Mathis is one of our most important and essential poets." -- Michael Collier, Eric Hoffer da Vinci Eye winner New England Book Awards Finalist "Must-Read Poetry: July 2020," The Millions "Over the last four decades, Mathis ( Book of Dog ) has quietly crafted lyrically precise, often harrowing poems in which the poet's 'throat is a long avenue of ice,/ cutting the familiar good words/ at their source.' This generous volume draws from the poet's recorded gifts and losses: poems of early and late motherhood, a child's mental illness and institutionalization, human and nonhuman deaths within and beyond the poet's purview. . . .In these knowing poems, readers may recognize their own humanity, as well as the sometimes-impossible conditions of living." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "An excellent collection that leads with her new poems, finely attuned to the body and aging." -- The Millions , "Must-Read Poetry: July 2020" "[D]eeply moving, beautiful." -- Literary North , online "In reading this superb collection, I was often reminded of the closing of Randall Jarrell's '90 North,' a poem of doubt and regret that somehow manages to quietly triumph over its bitterness. 'Pain comes from the darkness. / And we call it wisdom. It is pain.' Mathis's poems, like so many of Jarrell's, insist that pain and wisdom are often bafflingly symbiotic: they have learned to live with this injustice, and do so with a bravery and emotional depth that is sadly rare among contemporary poets." -- On the Seawall "Beginning with her astonishing first book, Aerial View of Louisiana , in 1979, and now with her moving and poignant group of new poems, Cleopatra Mathis has surveyed and charted with ever-increasing lyric concision and dramatic intensity 'the ritual ground work' of human need. From book to book, Mathis demonstrates how memory extends its 'first claim' to include not only the mythic richness of her childhood in Louisiana but also the contrasting and complicating joy and grief of her life in New England as a transplanted Southerner. The resolute heart and keen human insights found everywhere in After the Body: New and Selected Poems renew the 'claim' many readers of contemporary American poetry have made for decades, that Cleopatra Mathis is one of our most important and essential poets." -- Michael Collier

Table Of ContentTable of Contents After the Body: New Poems This Time, the Hawk The Difference Bed-bound After Chemo Not Myself Dyskinesia Through the Coffin Window Mother Pain The News at 2 A.M. Arm, Etc. What the Knife Is For Mother Spring Unfinished The Year The River Going Under Broke The Old Self The Body, Full of Bias Being Apart After the Body Silver Selected Poems Aerial View of Louisiana (1979) Aerial View of Louisiana For Maria As You Stalk the Sleep of My Forgetting A Place of Another Name Bees Getting Out Padre Island The Bottom Land (1983) Black Walnut For Blue Body, Earth, Water Elegy for the Other White Field On the Twelfth of March Fort Wall at Mytilene: Greece, 1921 Moon and Stars over Crete: For Alexandra Lilacs Body, Earth, Water: A Meditation The Center for Cold Weather (1989) Living Next Door to the Center for Cold Weather In a White Absence Dancer among the Constellations Flowers To the Unborn A Seasonal Record Cleopatra Theodos August Arrival The Faithful Guardian (1995) Blues: Late August Poem for Marriage Who Knows The Story Seven Months Not Writing The Great Quiet Mother's Day, 1993: Hearing That We Will Bomb Bosnia Raptor The Perfect Service Earth What to Tip the Boatman? (2001) The Owl Old Trick Solstice Noon That Year For Months White Primer Cutlery "as if mad is a direction, like west . . ." The Ruin Intermediary Reconciled After Persephone What to Tip the Boatman? The Return Persephone, Answering Demeter the Pilgrim Figure of Formal Loss: Pearl Fist White Sea (2005) Salt The Old Question The Source The Waiting Catalpa Cane Burial Want Moon Snail Death of a Gull Speech to the Self The Release White Morning You Must Cross the Black River Praise Him Soul Book of Dog (2012) Canis Ants Want My Yellow Moth Song of If-Only Their Chamber Essential Tremor In Lent Interstice Noise Book of Dog Salt Water Ducks Dune Shack Alone Western Conifer Seed Bug Survival: A Guide

SynopsisFrom her first book, Aerial View of Louisiana , published in 1979, Cleopatra Mathis has given us poems that somehow manage to be elegant and visceral at once. What has changed in the progression of the six collections since then--in poetry addressing marriage, the mystery of animals, the delicate and indelible bonds of family, illness, and mortality--is that the visceral quotient has steadily increased, though the elegance remains undiminished. For Mathis, the navigation of a darkened hallway at night is a perilous expedition. After the Body charts the depredations of an illness that seems intent on removing the body, piece by piece. Through close and relentless observation of her own physical being, Mathis shows us how miniscule ambition, planning, and a sense of control over our own bodies are--things we so blithely take as real and solid when healthy. Her many publications, awards, and praise from peers testify that she is a lyric poet of the highest order. This expansive new book is the culmination of a brilliant career, and a necessary addition to any collection., From her first book, Aerial View of Louisiana , published in 1979, Cleopatra Mathis has given us poems that somehow manage to be elegant and visceral at once. What has changed in the progression of the six collections since then--in poetry addressing marriage, the mystery of animals, the delicate and indelible bonds of family, illness, and mortality--is that the visceral quotient has steadily increased, though the elegance remains undiminished. For Mathis, the natural world no longer provides the affirmation and solace it once did; the navigation of a darkened hallway at night is a perilous expedition. After the Body charts the depredations of an illness that seems intent on removing the body, piece by piece. Through close and relentless observation of her own physical being, Mathis shows us how miniscule ambition, planning, and a sense of control over our own bodies are--things we so blithely take as real and solid when healthy. Her many publications, awards, and praise from peers testify that she is a lyric poet of the highest order. This expansive new book reflects a brilliant career, and is a necessary addition to any collection., After the Body charts the depredations of an illness that seems intent on removing the body, piece by piece., "From her first book, Aerial View of Louisiana, published in 1979, Cleopatra Mathis has given us poems that somehow manage to be elegant and visceral at once. What has changed in the progression of the six collections since then-in poetry addressing marriage, the mystery of animals, the delicate and indelible bonds of family, illness, and mortality-is that the visceral quotient has steadily increased, though the elegance remains undiminished. For Mathis, the navigation of a darkened hallway at night is a perilous expedition. After the Body charts the depredations of an illness that seems intent on removing the body, piece by piece. Through close and relentless observation of her own physical being, Mathis shows us how miniscule ambition, planning, and a sense of control over our own bodies are-things we so blithely take as real and solid when healthy. Her many publications, awards, and praise from peers testify that she is a lyric poet of the highest order. This expansive new book is the culmination of a brilliant career, and a necessary addition to any collection"--

LC Classification NumberPS3563.A8363A6 2020