Heat Lightning : New and Selected Poems, 1986-2006

by Skillman, Judith

• ISBN13: 9781878851239
• ISBN10: 1878851233
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-01
• Publisher: Small Pr Distribution

Summary

Poetry. Judith Skillman's HEAT LIGHTNING: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS 1986-2006 brings together poems from collections spanning a twenty year career, as well as new poems gathered here for the first time. Combining the domestic with the natural to produce poems both lyric and narrative in their procedures, Skillman's signature presence is everywhere evident. "By the time you get to the new work, you will, as I did... feel fortunate to have spent these hours with a poet who knows every trick in the book yet never lets on that she's doing anything other than saying what's in her heart and now yours as well"--David Kirby, from the introduction. "Judith Skillman is a poet whose mind, memory and imagination appear more compelling than the mundane realities of her life. Her poems often include a kind of arrested motion that signals the clash of domestic chores with artistic contemplation"--Madeline DeFrees.

Table of Contents

Hats Off Preface by David Kirby
From Worship of the Visible Spectrum (1988)
Written on Learning of Arrhythmia in the Unborn Child	17	(1)
Study in Blue	18	(1)
The Librarian Decides on Cryonics	19	(1)
Worship of the Visible Spectrum	20	(2)
Afternoon of the Child Genius	22	(1)
Star Map With Two Lovers	23	(4)
From Beethoven and the Birds (1996) A Conceit	27	(16)
Tinnitus	28	(1)
The Fingerboard	29	(2)
Gourds	31	(2)
The Housewife Dreams of Order	33	(1)
The Queen of Fatigue	34	(2)
Bird in the Attic Window	36	(2)
Beethoven and the Birds	38	(1)
The Vagaries of Fishes	39	(4)
From Storm (1998)
Tic Douloureux	43	(2)
Asylum	45	(1)
Rookery	46	(1)
June	47	(1)
The Mole	48	(1)
A Painter's Alphabet	49	(1)
Child	50	(1)
Storm	51	(5)
Ornamental Plum	56	(3)
From Red Town (2001)
Bourne	59	(1)
Red Town	60	(1)
Parkinson's	61	(1)
Jupiter	62	(1)
The Great-Tailed Grackle	63	(2)
Child Days	65	(3)
Sad Breed	68	(1)
Lilacs	69	(2)
The Cutter	71	(4)
From Circe's Island (2003)
The Duty of Ideas	75	(3)
The Sheers	78	(1)
Oradourian Gold	79	(3)
Barbed Wire	82	(2)
Witches Butter	84	(2)
Hand Building	86	(1)
Growing Her Hair	87	(4)
From Latticework (2004)
Marked	91	(2)
Glosa, The Sycamore	93	(1)
House of Moon	94	(2)
Lattice	96	(1)
Women Embroider	97	(1)
Dante's Nest	98	(3)
From Opalescence (2005)
The Stone in Glass	101	(3)
The Speed of Light	104	(2)
Field Thistle	106	(1)
Opalescence	107	(1)
Dry Drunks	108	(2)
Sea Smoke	110	(2)
Monotone	112	(5)
New Poems
The Mirror of Wood	117	(2)
Montezuma's Revenge	119	(2)
Heat Lightning	121	(2)
Salt	123	(2)
Porch Light	125	(1)
Butter and Eggs	126	(1)
The Family Goat	127	(2)
Echocardiogram	129	(1)
The Glass Chicken	130	(1)
Confessional	131	(1)
The Gray Trees of August	132	(2)
Gossip	134	(1)
Cobblestone Streets	135	(1)
Silk	136	(2)
Magpie Eyes	138	(3)
Notes	141	(2)
Acknowledgements	143	(2)
A Note about the Author	145