Collected Shorter Poems

by Peck, John

• ISBN13: 9780810151406
• ISBN10: 0810151405
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-02-24
• Publisher: Triquarterly Books

Summary

A selection of poems by a contemporary master John Peck's poems draw on both modernist and traditional resources, quarrying in the large gaps among contemporary readers of poetry. This definitive collection makes available difficult-to-find works by a remarkable, thoroughly original American poet. Peck's poems continue to attract a discerning, loyal audience of readers up to the challenge of confronting his astonishing range and ambitions.

Author Biography

John Peck was born in Pittsburgh in 1941. He taught literature at American and Swiss universities and trained as an analytical psychologist in Zurich. His collection The Broken Blockhouse Wall (Carcanet, 1979) won the Prix de Rome, and his other works include Argura (Sheep Meadow, 1998) and M and Other Poems (TriQuarterly Books, 1996). He lives in Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

from Shagbark(1972)

from The Broken Blockhouse Wall(1978)

from the 1970s and 1980s

from Poems and Translations of Hi-lo(1991)

from Argura(1993)

from Selva Morale(1995)

from M and Other Poems(1996)

from the 1990s

Notes

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

"Parable with Broken Frame"
An old architect at a littered worktable
sits through morning, eyes fixed on ocean,
intent through evening at the study window,
motionless though his hand rebuilds years.

Down razory defiles to the rockledge landing
stands of flittergold awash in wind,
and through soft lolling labia of the waves
tiny boats coming in, setting out.

Priest and corpsedresser begin the climb to his house,
their empty craft nibbles at spindrift.
a bridegroom and his man steer for the islands,
plinky music unrolls with their wake.

A last stone has been set in place, final tile,
the bride folds her face in streaming hands,
a black duo mounts to the door and goes in.
All of these I have been, none holds me.

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Excerpted from Collected Shorter Poems by John Peck
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