Furious Lullaby

by de La Paz, Oliver

• ISBN13: 9780809327744
• ISBN10: 0809327740
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-25
• Publisher: Southern Illinois Univ Pr
• More Book Details
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Summary

Furious Lullabyis both a celebration of and a eulogy to the body in the twenty-first century. The collection, which examines the larger concepts of salvation and temptation in a world of blossoming strife, includes a series of aubades - dramatic poems culminating with the separation of lovers at dawn. The lovers suffer a metaphysical crisis, seeking to know what is good, what is evil, and how to truly know the difference. Knowing, however, invites the terrible into their world. The Devil, a seductive trickster, haunts the landscape as a voice who dares each inquisitor to learn about mortality, morality, the beautiful, and the unspeakable through direct experience.Furious Lullabyoffers a departure from the lighter prose poetry of de la Paz'sNames above Housesand preserves the author's concern with the nature of human grace.

Author Biography

Oliver de la Paz, an assistant professor of English at Western Washington University, is the author of Names above Houses, published by Southern Illinois University Press, and is a recipient of a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His poems have appeared in the Literary Review, Quarterly West, Third Coast, and Asian Pacific American Review, and in the anthology Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Literature. He received his M.F.A. in creative writing at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

Holiness	p. 3
Hour of Dawn	p. 4
Aubade with Scorpions and Monsoon	p. 5
Constricting Aubade	p. 7
Flutter	p. 8
Aubade with Doves, a Television, and Fire	p. 9
The Devil's Book	p. 11
Aubade with a Book and the Rattle from a String of Pearls	p. 14
God Essay	p. 16
The Devil's Hour	p. 17
Aubade with Constellations, Some Horses, and Snow	p. 18
Penitence Essay	p. 20
Aubade with Bread for the Sparrows	p. 21
My Dearest Apostasy	p. 22
Hush	p. 23
My Dearest Conflict	p. 27
What the Devil Said	p. 28
What the Eye Said	p. 29
What the Scapula Said	p. 30
On the Pores of the Flesh	p. 31
On the Pulse Residing Behind the Lobe of the Ear	p. 32
On the Fenestra Ovalis	p. 33
Aporia	p. 34
What the Ear Said	p. 39
What the Dead Said	p. 40
What the Devil Said	p. 41
On the Epidermis	p. 42
On the Motions of Death	p. 44
Epitaph for the Musculature of the Neck	p. 45
My Dearest Transgression	p. 46
Fury	p. 49
Aubade with Starlings and Kerosene Muted by Glass	p. 50
Messengers	p. 51
Mysteries essay	p. 52
My Dearest Recklessness	p. 53
Aubade with Memory Crystallized into a Figure of a Dancer	p. 54
Widening Aubade	p. 56
Aubade with a Heel of Bread, a Heart, and the Devil	p. 60
Prayer Essay	p. 61
Aubade with the Moon, Some Bones, and a Word	p. 62
My Dearest Regret	p. 64
Aubade with a Thistle Bush Holding Six Songs	p. 65
Lullaby	p. 66
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