Summary

Chicago has served as touchstone and muse to generations of writers and artists defined by their relationship to the city's history, lore, inhabitants, landmarks, joys and sorrows, pride and shame. The poetic conversations inspired by Chicago have long been a vital part of America's literary landscape, from Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks to experimental writers and today's slam poets. The one hundred contributors to this vibrant collection take their materials and their inspirations from the city itself in a way that continues this energetic dialogue. The cultural, ethnic, and aesthetic diversity in this gathering of poems springs from a variety of viewpoints, styles, and voices as multifaceted and energetic as the city itself. Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz: "I want to eat / in a city smart enough to know that if you / are going to have that heart attack, you might / as well have the pleasure of knowing // you've really earned it"; Renny Golden: "In the heat of May 1937, my grandfather / sits in the spring grass of an industrial park / with hundreds of striking steelworkers"; Joey Nicoletti: "The wind pulls a muscle / as fans yell the vine off the outfield wall, / mustard-stained shirts, hot dog smiles, and all." The combined energies of these poems reveal the mystery and beauty that is Second City, the City by the Lake, New Gotham, Paris on the Prairie, the Windy City, the Heart of America, and Sandburg's iconic City of the Big Shoulders.

Author Biography

Ryan G. Van Cleave is author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of nineteen books, including poetry, young adult fiction, and nonfiction. With Virgil Suarez, he is editor of the poetry anthologies Red, White, and Blues: Poets on the Promise of America (Iowa, 2004), Vespers: Contemporary American Poems of Religion and Spirituality (Iowa, 2003), Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America (Iowa, 2002), and American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement (Iowa, 2001).

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Editors Note	p. xiii
Routes	p. 1
At the Crawford Coal-Fired Rower Plant	p. 2
Time Travel	p. 3
Chicago Deep Dish	p. 4
Chicago's Monuments	p. 5
Hancock O'Hare	p. 6
Yes, We Can	p. 8
Ted Stone Morning	p. 10
Postcard from Buddy Guy's Legends: Bar and Grill, Chicago	p. 12
I Saw You	p. 13
The Last Fortune Teller of Chicago	p. 14
Sixteen	p. 15
Everything Is	p. 16
Jean Baptiste	p. 18
Sleeping with Carl	p. 19
Hotel Dana	p. 21
Low Ride Elegy	p. 23
Campus Taxi	p. 24
Michael Jordan	p. 25
summer news	p. 27
Still Life with Zeno and File Footage	p. 29
Ravenswood	p. 30
Hibernation	p. 31
Chicago Union Stockyards Circa 1957	p. 33
150 Years of Chicago Architecture	p. 34
Cheo Saw an Angel on Division Street	p. 35
Loop	p. 36
Asked for a Happy Memory of Her Father, She Recalls Wrigley Field	p. 37
Radar Ghosts	p. 38
With My Blue Flowered Dress	p. 40
Republic Steel Chicago South Works	p. 41
The Horses Run Back to Their Stalls	p. 43
38 Easy Steps to Carlyle's Everlasting Yea	p. 45
Bible Belt	p. 47
The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window	p. 48
Uncle Danny Brags about Playing Special Teams for the '85 Bears	p. 50
Dearborn North Apartments	p. 51
In Michael Robins's class minus one	p. 52
American Apocalypse	p. 53
Dear John Dillinger,	p. 57
on the other end. right there	p. 58
My Great-Grandfather Takes a Business Trip, c. 1912	p. 59
Road Trip	p. 60
Luminaria	p. 61
Dear Chicago-	p. 62
One likes to think Chicago	p. 63
The Jewel	p. 64
Chicago Noise (Love Letter to Steve Albini)	p. 66
Miniature Church	p. 68
Under the Terrible Burden of Destiny Laughing as a Young Man Laughs	p. 70
The Rainiest Day in Recorded Chicago History	p. 71
At the Palmer House Hilton	p. 72
dead dead	p. 73
At the Sea Lion Pool	p. 75
Chicago: City of Neighborhoods	p. 76
Emerald Ash	p. 80
Seasonality of Violence	p. 81
Chicago Noir	p. 82
Too Much to Take In	p. 83
How Should Chicago Be Governed?	p. 84
Fermata Chicago	p. 85
Sandburg Variations	p. 87
How to Hear Chicago	p. 89
Jack Johnson Comes to Chicago	p. 90
Chicago	p. 92
Noon outside the Music Mart: A Sestina	p. 93
Ferris wheel at Navy Pier	p. 95
Lee Smith	p. 96
Joumey	p. 97
Chancing Upon the Manatees	p. 99
A World of Our Own	p. 101
Tracks on the Ground, Tracks in the Sky	p. 102
Plattdeutsch	p. 104
The Chicago Daily Blues	p. 106
Walk through Chicago's Loop, Winter, 2009	p. 107
Windy City	p. 108
Second Sister Terrorizes Second City	p. 109
At Shedd Aquarium	p. 112
Pigeon Lady	p. 114
Wishbone	p. 116
And Still, a Bird Is in Me	p. 117
Huck, with Music and Guns	p. 119
Chicago	p. 120
Meditation on a Shorewalk with Old Emil in the "Windy City" of My Youth	p. 122
A Sheaf for Chicago	p. 123
Wall Painting in Chicago Bar: "Richard J. Daley, Mayor"	p. 131
In the Intersection, Jackson and State	p. 133
Tourists and Bum, Art Institute of Chicago	p. 134
Run for Your Life	p. 135
Adagio Villanelle	p. 138
Nighthawks Transfixed	p. 139
Inheritance	p. 140
Cloud Gate	p. 141
TheFacts as I Know Them	p. 142
Blueaille	p. 143
Fields	p. 144
At the Library	p. 146
Chicago Chronicle	p. 148
Chicago,	p. 149
ContributorsÆ Notes	p. 153
Permissions	p. 167
Index to Titles	p. 173
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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