Loose Sugar

by Hillman, Brenda

• ISBN13: 9780819522436
• ISBN10: 0819522430
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-03-01
• Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr

Summary

Loose Sugar is an alchemical manuscript disguised as a collection of poems, or vice versa. Either way, the primal materials of which this book is comprised -- love, sex, adolescence, space-time, depression, post-colonialism, and sugar -- are movingly and mysteriously transmuted: not into gold, but into a poet's philosopher's stone, in which language marries life. Structurally virtuosic, elaborate without being ornate, Loose Sugar is spun into series within series: each of the five sections has a dual heading (such as "space / time" or "time / work") in which the terms are neither in collision nor collusion, but in conversation. It's elemental sweet talk, and is Brenda Hillman's most experimental work to date, culminating in a meditation on the possibility of a native -- and feminine -- language.

Author Biography

BRENDA HILLMAN teaches writing at St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA. Her other books, all published by Wesleyan, include Cascadia (2001), Death Tractates (1992), Bright Existence (1992), and Fortress (1989).

Table of Contents

The Spark	p. 3
Thicket Group: A Power	p. 8
Thicket Group: Empty Spines	p. 9
Thicket Group: A Window	p. 10
Thicket Group: The Thicket	p. 11
Thicket Group: Dust Devils	p. 12
The Arroyo	p. 13
Early Sex	p. 16
Orion's Belt	p. 18
Active Magic	p. 20
Cheap Gas	p. 27
Male Nipples	p. 29
An Event	p. 32
Chevron Tankers	p. 33
(visitor fragments)	p. 35
Proud Energy	p. 43
No Problem	p. 45
Somewhat Anthem	p. 46
The Bat	p. 53
Symmetry Breaking	p. 54
C ode	p. 55
River Song	p. 56
The cliffs	p. 59
Doubting chamber	p. 60
Horizontal series	p. 61
Deep noticing	p. 62
Trap door	p. 63
Spiral lullaby	p. 64
Below below	p. 65
The escalator	p. 66
The cave	p. 67
Visitor fragment	p. 68
Various outposts	p. 69
High vortex	p. 70
Blue square	p. 71
Time's Body	p. 75
Time Problem	p. 77
Band Practice	p. 80
Busy Week: Being Busy	p. 81
Busy Week: Very Busy	p. 82
Busy Week: Really Busy	p. 83
The Particles	p. 85
Time Zone	p. 87
Early Vacations	p. 88
The Unbeginning	p. 93
The Mysteries	p. 94
Loose Sugar: Two Rivers	p. 97
Loose Sugar: National Development	p. 98
Loose Sugar: Two Mothers	p. 99
Loose Sugar: (notes)	p. 100
Two Brothers	p. 101
Stuck Tram	p. 102
Loose Sugar	p. 103
Red Fingernails	p. 104
Vanilla Continued	p. 105
The Corcovado	p. 106
Beach Photos	p. 107
Mother's Language	p. 108
Remembering Form	p. 109
World/axis	p. 111
Note	p. 113
Acknowledgments	p. 115
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.