Pursuit : Poems

by FUNKHOUSER ERICA

• ISBN13: 9780618171521
• ISBN10: 0618171525
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-16
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Summary

Erica Funkhouser's fourth book is full of animal and human pursuits: a leaf-cutting bee careens from branch to branch, looking for the right place to nest; a frustrated farmer stalks her garden's invisible predator; a young woman insists on walking the length of a canyon whose river terrifies her; a dying man tries to avoid death long enough to die gracefully. Whether driven by elemental need or sublime desire, the inhabitants of these poems are actively engaged in seeking of every kind-physical, intellectual, and spiritual. Their very effort animates them. Pursuit is also devoted to the details of living-what we build, how we eat, our solitary and communal habits, our obsessions, how we amuse ourselves, how we find and endure love, how we survive. As Rosanna Warren wrote of the poems in Funkhouser's previous collection, "They have the feel of experience rescued from the conventional by a great steadiness of regard."

Author Biography

Erica Funkhouser is the author of four previous books of poems, including Pursuit and The Actual World. She is a lecturer in the department of writing and humanistic studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lives in Essex, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

I
Here	3	(1)
Among Lilies	4	(2)
Mole	6	(2)
Harvest Mouse	8	(1)
Tenderness	9	(1)
When She Lies Down at Night	10	(1)
The Chronicle of the Turkey	11	(3)
Passage	14	(2)
Mydas Fly	16	(2)
Woodcock	18	(2)
Quince	20	(2)
Generatrix	22	(2)
Low Tide	24	(1)
Possession	25	(3)
Mailbox	28	(2)
Collecting Hair	30	(2)
Turning Point	32	(3)
My Father's Lunch	35	(4)
II
To the Animal in the Hole	39	(10)
III
Still Life with Pewter Pitcher	49	(2)
Love Poem with Harbor View	51	(3)
Proof	54	(2)
Tundra	56	(1)
The Marvels of Insect Life	57	(4)
Cafe de Sol	61	(1)
The Seven Friendships	62	(4)
Cataract Canyon	66	(8)
First Apartment	74	(5)
Oasis	79	(4)
Casualty	83	(5)
Notes	88

Excerpts

TendernessLast night the animals beneath her window crept out of hiding to comb the dirt from each others fur.Rising to watch, she discovered the lilacs lit from below by ivory vinca. The street on the other side of the trees continued to contain its passing cars; tenderly her teeth let her tongue rest against their curving backs.Tonight when she lies in bed again, she will remember the one kind thing her grown daughter said today after weeks of scrutiny,and the moment at work just now, when a stack of Day-Glo folders cascaded over her desk, thrilling the white cubicle with their descent. Copyright 2002 by Erica Funkhouser. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.

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Excerpted from Pursuit: Poems by Erica Funkhouser
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