Century's Road Poems: Poems

by Kirkpatrick, Patricia

• ISBN13: 9780930100124
• ISBN10: 0930100123
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-07-01
• Publisher: Consortium Book Sales & Dist

Summary

"I find myself taken by Patricia Kirkpatrick's unsentimental tenderness-a mark, I believe, of all good lyric poetry."-Jane Hirshfield The poems in Century's Road travel the "plain public road" of American daily life while glimpsing the humanity of other continents. At the center of the book is the figure of the child as witness, whether newborn or newly immigrated, abandoned or unplanned, learning to read, or telling stories. In a voice combining a clear sense of image and sound, these poems stand in a lyric tradition yet address issues-and mysteries-beyond the personal. The poet pursues the life of the imagination and subjects of birth and death; the natural world; family, community and womanhood; and sometimes touching the legacy of World War II, Vietnam and September 11th. from Century's Road: In the middle of the century, I stood watching flickering reels of people flee the burning city. A child stood sobbing at the edge of the road, holding her arms out but nobody stopped to take her. Nobody stopped. Thundering passage thundering past. The black and white footage of war. The hard cart of migration over stone. Patricia Kirkpatrick grew up in Des Moines and graduated from the University of Iowa and San Francisco State University. She has received awards from the NEA, the Bush Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Loft-McKnight and the Jerome Foundation. Her poems have appeared in magazines such as The Antioch Review, Threepenny Review and Luna. Her essays and interviews with American poets have been published in Ruminator/Hungry Mind Review, Speakeasy and Riverbank Review. She teaches in the MFA program at Hamline University, and has also taught and conducted workshops at Macalester College, the Princeton Theological Seminary and the Loft. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her family.

Table of Contents

Letter to Poetry	p. 9
At the Cafe	p. 13
Century's Road	p. 14
The Mad Sisters	p. 16
Hidden	p. 17
Water in the Tropics or The Woman Who Fell in the River	p. 19
Sisters at Night	p. 21
The Unplanned Child	p. 23
Letter to My Namesake	p. 25
Against a Winter Sky	p. 27
Ashland at Arundel	p. 29
Boat to Damme	p. 31
Keepsake	p. 33
Ultrasound	p. 34
Processional	p. 35
Boychild	p. 37
Bony Cow	p. 39
Secret Life	p. 40
The Poem I Turn Away From	p. 41
Recitation in Delivery	p. 43
Letter from the Coast	p. 45
To the Sparrow	p. 49
Circle	p. 50
To the Sparrow, Again	p. 52
The Window Is Open	p. 53
Cello Music	p. 54
Orioles	p. 55
Pine Siskins	p. 56
Turkey Vultures	p. 57
Letter to Death	p. 58
Self-Portrait with Phoebe	p. 59
Afterbirth	p. 61
Spring Dream at Forty-Nine	p. 62
Learning to Read	p. 65
Letter to the Spirit Horse	p. 67
Cardinal	p. 68
For a Woman Murdered While Running at Land's End, San Francisco	p. 69
The Woman in the Veil	p. 71
American War	p. 74
Chernobyl	p. 75
Eve of War	p. 78
English Lesson	p. 80
Women at Fifty	p. 82
The Singer	p. 83
Letter from the Sister Who Stayed Home	p. 84
The Black Squirrel	p. 85
Practice Rooms	p. 87
A Road in Northern Minnesota	p. 89
Fog	p. 90
Where on This Earth	p. 92
What Highway	p. 94
Notes	p. 97
Acknowledgments	p. 99
Biography	p. 101
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.