The Hunger Wall

by Ragan, James

• ISBN13: 9780802134783
• ISBN10: 0802134785
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-09-01
• Publisher: Grove Pr

Summary

In 1992, critically acclaimed poet James Ragan was in Los Angeles when riots exploded across racial and class lines. That same year he was also living in Prague when Czechoslovakia divided into two separate nations, motivated by the principles of "nationalism." This odd coincidence forms the crux of his new, eagerly anticipated book of poetry. The poems in The Hunger Wall, named for a wall near the Prague Castle, take these two cultural sensibilities that seem worlds apart and explore the subtle nuances of their unlikely similarities. In beautifully crafted and metaphorically rich language, Ragan studies what it means to set a "border," whether it be political, racial, or economic. The Hunger Wall examines a continually changing world - a world of shifting cultural identities in which the widening gap between the rich and the poor is dangerously explosive.

Table of Contents

The Hunger Wall	p. 5
Crossing the Charles Bridge	p. 7
St. Jacob's Church of the Hanging Hand	p. 9
The Old Prague Jewish Cemetery	p. 11
The Ossuary at Kutna Hora	p. 12
The Foreign Tourist Carrying the Antique Cross	p. 14
Sarka	p. 16
"Exclusive Photo with a Pretty Snake"	p. 18
Obscurity	p. 20
Triad on the People's Road	p. 22
The Apostle Clock	p. 24
The Stone Steps to Hradcany	p. 26
The Separation	p. 31
The Siege	p. 33
The Period	p. 36
The Handkerchief	p. 37
Pietro the Fiddler	p. 39
The Wedding	p. 41
Bundling Clothes to the Old Country	p. 45
Zivanska	p. 47
The Walk	p. 49
Reminiscing Joe	p. 52
The Iconoclast	p. 54
Huckster at Noontime	p. 55
Many Smokes	p. 61
The Pacific	p. 65
Olvera Street	p. 66
Natural History	p. 68
The Walls	p. 69
A Glass of Claret	p. 70
Hit and Run at the Pantages'	p. 71
Shoplifting in a Korean Store	p. 74
The Neighbor Who in Found Light	p. 76
The Skinhead	p. 78
The Docetist	p. 80
The Tower (Nuestro Pueblo)	p. 85
Tar	p. 87
A Drive-by on Saeegu	p. 90
Dog in the Storm Drain at Florence and Normandie	p. 91
Wrought Iron	p. 93
Following the Juvenile Detention Bus	p. 94
On the Day of His Death He Dreams	p. 96
With Love the Infinite Is Passing By	p. 97
Meliorism	p. 99
Audienca	p. 100
The Spearwort	p. 103
Purgatorio	p. 104
Notes	p. 111
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.