Kissing the Bread: New and Selected Poems, 1969-1999

by Gilbert, Sandra M.

• ISBN13: 9780393049411
• ISBN10: 0393049418
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

"[Her] poems startle on every page: at times they bring your heart to your throat."-Peter Dale Scott

Author Biography

Sandra M. Gilbert is the author of five previous books of poetry. She is a professor of English at the University of California, Davis.

Table of Contents

I. The Magi in Florida
The Magi in Florida, 1988	19	(2)
About the Beginning	21	(2)
The Dolls	23	(2)
Uncle Barney	25	(3)
Going to Connecticut	28	(3)
Thirty Years Later I Meet Your Seventeen-Year-Old Daughter the Poet	31	(3)
The Mall	34	(2)
Seizure	36	(1)
The Outsider	37	(2)
Broth	39	(1)
Indoor Camellia	40	(2)
Journal Entry, 1984	42	(2)
Mother-in-Law	44	(1)
In the Garage of the Retirement Complex	45	(2)
Gold Tooth	47	(2)
God, He Had a Hat!	49	(2)
Variations on a Theme	51	(2)
After the Freeze	53	(1)
The Scar	54	(2)
October 31, 1995: A Ghost in Goldwin Smith	56	(3)
Berkeley, February 11, 1998: The Hypothetical Life	59	(2)
Ending the Book	61	(2)
The Tidal Wave	63	(2)
Walking the Seawall	65	(4)
II. Want
Death	69	(3)
Code Blue, ICU, Bed 5	72	(3)
Talk Show	75	(2)
Against Poetry	77	(1)
Want	78	(5)
Kilninian Kirkyard	78	(1)
The Dead	79	(2)
I Am	81	(2)
The Mountains	83	(2)
Memory Fails	85	(4)
Some Definitions	89	(19)
Aperitif	89	(1)
These Old Keys	90	(1)
October Cobwebs	91	(1)
Basil	92	(1)
Fog on the Coast	93	(2)
Pumpkin	95	(1)
Enormous Wind	96	(1)
Mexican Sage	97	(1)
November Afternoon	98	(1)
Spoon	99	(1)
Leaves	100	(1)
December	101	(1)
After	102	(1)
Dark Blue	103	(1)
Trunk	104	(1)
One Pine Cone in the Fire	105	(1)
Calvados	106	(2)
Object Trouve	108	(2)
After Long Rain	110	(1)
Omens	111	(1)
Epithalamion	112	(5)
III. When She Was Kissed by the Mathematician
When She Was Kissed by the Mathematician	117	(2)
Her Response to His Theorem	119	(1)
She Grapples with Operations Research	120	(2)
He Issues Commands	122	(2)
He Discusses Gravity	124	(1)
After He Expounds the Theorem of the Different Infinities	125	(2)
Long Division	127	(2)
They Debate Triangles and Medians	129	(2)
He Explains the Book Proof	131	(4)
IV. At Cleopatra Bay
At Cleopatra Bay	135	(2)
Sorrow	137	(2)
Shelling Beans Outside Pollenca	139	(1)
Aurora Borealis	140	(2)
Last Sunday at Les Grands Eaux Musicales	142	(2)
Autumn, Como	144	(7)
Olives	144	(1)
Poets	145	(1)
Bread	146	(1)
Wind	147	(1)
Castle	148	(1)
Evening Rain	149	(1)
Morning Rain	150	(1)
Notes in Provence	151	(3)
Dante	151	(2)
Van Gogh	153	(1)
Catedral at Tlacolula	154	(1)
Trionfo del Morte	155	(5)
Dream	155	(2)
Cookbook	157	(1)
Museum	158	(2)
Hurtigruten	160	(11)
Alesund: North	160	(2)
Ornes: Midnight Sun	162	(2)
Salt Fjord: Arctic	164	(1)
Lyngstuva: One A.M.	165	(1)
Trollfjorden: Gerda	166	(2)
Nordkappbanken: Open Sea	168	(3)
V. From Ghost Volcano (1995)
Kissing the Bread	171	(5)
October 6, 1992: Seattle, Looking for Mount Rainier	176	(2)
February 11, 1992: At the Art Institute of Chicago	178	(2)
May 3, 1992: On the Surface	180	(3)
June 15, 1992: Widow's Walk, Harpswell, Maine	183	(2)
September 10, 1992: Picking Wildflowers in New Hampshire	185	(2)
November 26, 1992: Thanksgiving at the Sea Ranch, Contemplating Metempsychosis	187	(2)
from Water Music	189	(8)
Hard Water	189	(2)
Brine	191	(2)
The Water Table	193	(1)
The Lake	194	(2)
Rain	196	(1)
Spring Equinox, 1993: Puerto Vallarta, Playa de los Muertos	197	(2)
Calla Lilies	199	(1)
February 11, 1994: Berkeley, Anniversary Waltz Again	200	(5)
VI. From Blood Pressure (1988)
from The Love Sequence	205	(15)
You Discover You're in Love with the Dead Prince	205	(2)
How You Fell	207	(2)
You Meet the Real Dream Mother-in-Law	209	(2)
The One He Loves	211	(2)
The Love Sickness	213	(1)
The Last Poem about the Snow Queen	214	(2)
A Year Later	216	(2)
The Return of the Muse	218	(2)
Accident	220	(1)
Blood Pressure	221	(2)
In the Golden Sala	223	(2)
Grandpa	225	(2)
My Grandmother in Paris	227	(3)
Anniversary Waltz	230	(2)
Ponce de Leon	232	(2)
2085	234	(5)
VII. From Emily's Bread (1984)
For the Muses	239	(2)
The Dressmaker's Dummy	241	(2)
On the Third Hand	243	(2)
Emily's Bread	245	(2)
Daguerreotype: Governess	247	(1)
Daguerreotype: ``Fallen'' Woman	248	(1)
Daguerreotype: Wet Nurse	249	(1)
Bas Relief: Bacchante	250	(2)
Sculpture: Naiad/Fountain	252	(2)
Elegy	254	(1)
The Night Grandma Died	255	(1)
Simplicity	256	(2)
Sitting	258	(2)
The Emily Dickinson Black Cake Walk	260	(5)
VIII. The Summer Kitchen (1983)
The Summer Kitchen	265	(3)
The Brussels Sprouts	268	(1)
Five Potatoes	269	(1)
Turnips	270	(1)
The Leeks	271	(2)
Ginger Root	273	(1)
The Carrots	274	(2)
The Red Cabbages	276	(2)
Beets	278	(2)
The Wild Grasses	280	(1)
Autumn Song	281	(1)
The Celery Bushes	282	(1)
The Language of Flowers	283	(10)
Geranium	283	(1)
Impatiens	284	(1)
Lilies of the Nile	285	(1)
Petunias	286	(1)
Bougainvillea	287	(1)
Roses	288	(1)
Daisies	289	(4)
IX. From In the Fourth World (1979)
Getting Fired, or ``Not Being Retained''	293	(3)
The Intruder	296	(2)
The Giant Rat of Sumatra	298	(2)
Her Last Sickness	300	(1)
After a Death	301	(1)
Mafioso	302	(1)
Shell Collecting	303	(2)
Grandmother	305	(1)
The Dream of the Sun	306	(1)
The Cassandra Dream	307	(1)
The Milk Dream	308	(1)
The Dream of My Daughter	309	(2)
The Grandmother Dream	311	(1)
Doing Laundry	312	(1)
Tailors	313	(1)
The Fireflies	314	(1)
In the Fourth World	315	(2)
Index of Titles and First Lines	317