Now You're the Enemy

by Hall, James Allen

• ISBN13: 9781557288646
• ISBN10: 155728864X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Arkansas Pr

Summary

A family in the aftermath of violence These raw and powerful poems have at their heart the charged, archetypal figure of the mother. Conflicted by the twin desires of self-destruction and self-preservation, this mother is both terrible and beautiful. This compassionate, nervy collection of poems shows a family in the aftermath of violence. James Allen Hall explores themes of loss, the intersection of grief and desire, and the ways in which history, art, and politics shape the self. We meet the speaker's mother in many guises-she is the rogue Republic of Texas, the titular character of Rosemary's Baby, a nineteenth century artist's model, a fake entry in an encyclopedia, the lost queen of King Lear. With clarity, wit, and compassion, the speaker discovers the facets of his mother-her own abuse, her years of adultery, her struggle to remain independent-so that he may come to terms with his own sexuality. By seeing his mother in these guises, the speaker understands identity as it develops along and is reclaimed from the most repressive of social margins. Hall's poems twine the autobiographical impulse with a deeper emotional, somewhat surreal, temperament. This is a book as much about the way we tell our stories as it is about the stories we tell. Now You're the Enemy negotiates narrative in order to refashion the self-as a way to survive, to learn the redemptive power of love.

Author Biography

James Allen Hall is an assistant professor of English at Bethany College in West Virginia.

Table of Contents

Family Portrait [When I say my mother]	p. 3
Wedding Dress	p. 4
Portrait of My Mother as the Republic of Texas	p. 5
The Egg	p. 7
Portrait of My Mother as Rosemary Woodhouse	p. 9
Song	p. 11
Touch	p. 12
A Fact Which Occurred in America	p. 14
Family Portrait [If I could turn the photograph]	p. 16
Portrait of My Mother as Self-Inflicting Philomena	p. 17
In Captivity	p. 19
Safety	p. 20
My Father's Triumph	p. 21
Parthenogenesis	p. 22
My Mother's Love	p. 24
Family Portrait [The woman has disrobed]	p. 25
Madame Lear	p. 26
Brief History of My Mother	p. 28
Pleasure	p. 33
Heritage	p. 34
We Fall in Love with Total Strangers	p. 38
In Praise of Lies	p. 40
Portrait of My Lover as "Man in a Polyester Suit (1980)"	p. 41
Portrait of My Mother as Lillian Virginia Mountweazel	p. 43
Four Letters from SPC Elycia Loveis Fine	p. 45
Portrait of My Mother as Victorine Meurent
Street Singer	p. 49
Mile. Victorine en Costume d'Espada	p. 51
Le dejuener sur l'herbe	p. 53
Olympia	p. 54
Le Bar aux Folies-Bergere	p. 55
Girl on a Horse	p. 56
Aubade	p. 57
The End of Myth	p. 59
The Dumb Body	p. 60
You Send Me Roses	p. 61
My Father's Time	p. 62
We Exult in Your Pain	p. 64
The Enemy	p. 65
Naming the End	p. 67
Love the Shattered Thing	p. 68
Portrait of My Lover Singing in Traffic	p. 70
Notes	p. 73
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