Return To The City Of White Donkeys

by Tate, James

• ISBN13: 9780060750022
• ISBN10: 0060750022
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

In his fourteenth collection of poetry, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner James Tate continues exploring his own peculiar brand of poetry, transforming our everyday world into one where women give birth to wolves, wild babies are found in gardens, and Saint Nick visits on a hot July day. Tate's signature style draws on a marvelous variety of voices and characters, all of which sound vaguely familiar, but are each fantastically unique, brilliant, and eccentric. Yet, as Charles Simic observed in The New York Review of Books , "With all his reliance on chance, Tate has a serious purpose. He's searching for a new way to write a lyric poem." He continues, "To write a poem out of nothing at all is Tate's genius. For him, the poem is something one did not know was there until it was written down ... Just about anything can happen next in this kind of poetry and that is its attraction ... Tate is not worried about leaving us a little dazed ... He succeeds in ways for which there are few precedents. He makes me think that anti-poetry is the best friend poetry ever had."

Table of Contents

Long-Term Memory	1	(2)
The Memories of Fish	2	(1)
The Beautiful Shoeshine	3	(1)
Never Enough Darts	4	(1)
It Happens Like This	5	(1)
Brittle Family Photographs	6	(1)
The Man Without Leather Breeches	7	(1)
The All but Perfect Evening on the Lake	8	(2)
The Florist	10	(1)
Lost River	11	(2)
Making the Best of the Holidays	13	(1)
Their Number Became Thinned	14	(1)
Lust for Life	15	(2)
The Incense Man	17	(1)
The Lost Chapter	18	(2)
Bernie at the Pay Phone	20	(1)
Suburban Bison	21	(1)
In Search Of	22	(1)
Banking Rules	23	(1)
The Animists	24	(1)
The Healing Ground	25	(2)
The Promotion	27	(1)
A Sound Like Distant Thunder	28	(1)
A Cyclops Would Have Been Better	29	(1)
Of Whom Am I Afraid?	30	(1)
The Camel	31	(1)
Condolence	32	(1)
Silver Queen	33	(1)
The Ravine	34	(2)
The Bleeding Mind	36	(1)
Etiquette	37	(1)
The Greater Battle	38	(2)
The Fragrant Cloud	40	(1)
Hunger	41	(1)
Sheldon's Derring-Do	42	(2)
Half-Eaten	44	(1)
Jules to the Rescue	45	(1)
The Found Penny	46	(1)
Holy Saturday	47	(2)
The Formal Invitation	49	(2)
A More Prosperous Nation	51	(2)
Mr. Twiggy	53	(2)
Intruders	55	(1)
Bounden Duty	56	(2)
Seven Sauce Lobster of Paradise	58	(2)
Shiloh	60	(1)
The Interview	61	(1)
In a Past Life	62	(1)
Not Long Ago, Milk Cows Ruminated There	63	(1)
Beavertown	64	(1)
Love Child	65	(1)
Sleepy Visitation	66	(2)
Elysium	68	(2)
Why We Must Sleep	70	(2)
I Never Meant to Harm Him	72	(2)
A Trout in the Tam o' Shanter	74	(2)
Swoon	76	(1)
The Historical Society	77	(2)
The Wild Turkey	79	(1)
Directions to the Peace Pagoda	80	(2)
The Rules	82	(2)
Wendell	84	(2)
The Survivalists	86	(2)
The Rally	88	(2)
The Case of Aaron Novak	90	(2)
The Rebel	92	(2)
The Harp	94	(2)
Kung Fu Dancing	96	(2)
Special Protection	98	(2)
The Cobbler's Assistant	100	(2)
The Special Guest	102	(2)
Faultfinding Tour	104	(2)
The Loon	106	(1)
The New Mountain	107	(2)
Red Dirt	109	(1)
Lost Geese	110	(2)
The Long Journey Home	112	(2)
Kingdom Come	114	(2)
Conventional Medicine	116	(2)
How the People Live	118	(2)
The Aphid Farmers	120	(2)
The Visiting Scholar	122	(2)
The Reenactors	124	(2)
The Boy Band	126	(2)
Things Change	128	(2)
The Sinking Boat	130	(2)
The Radish	132	(2)
Affliction	134	(2)
Bringing in the New Year	136	(1)
The Petition	137	(2)
Trail of Miracles	139	(2)
The Prehensile Tail	141	(2)
The Reluctant Surrender of an Important Piece of Evidence	143	(2)
Song of the Nightingales	145	(2)
Return to the City of White Donkeys	147	(2)
The Raven Speaks	149	(2)
The Great Horned Owl Has Flown	151	(2)
The Nameless Ones	153	(2)
The Bus Stop	155	(2)
Voyage to an Outlying Island	157	(2)
Macaroni	159	(2)
The Coolest Thing	161	(2)
A Clean Hit	163	(2)
The Kennedy Assassination	165	(2)
The Investors	167	(2)
The Vacant Jungle	169	(2)
A Sunday Drive	171	(1)
Being Present at More Than One Place at a Time	172	(1)
The Search for Lost Lives	173

Excerpts

Return to the City of White Donkeys
Poems

Long-Term Memory

I was sitting in the park feeding pigeons
when a man came over to me and scrutinized my
face right up close. "There's a statue of you
over there," he said. "You should be dead. What
did you do to deserve a statue?" "I've never seen
a statue of me," I said. "There can't be a statue
of me. I've never done anything to deserve a
statue. And I'm definitely not dead." "Well,
go look for yourself. It's you alright, there's
no mistaking that," he said. I got up and walked
over where it was. It was me alright. I looked
like I was gazing off into the distance, or the
future, like those statues of pioneers. It didn't
have my name on it or anything, but it was me.
A lady came up to me and said, "You're looking at
your own statue. Isn't that against the law, or
something?" "It should be," I said, "but this is
my first offense. Maybe they'll let me off light."
"It's against nature, too," she said, "and bad
manners, I think." "I couldn't agree with you
more," I said. "I'm walking away right now, sorry."
I went back to my bench. The man was sitting there.
"Maybe you're a war hero. Maybe you died in the
war," he said. "Never been a soldier," I said.
"Maybe you founded this town three hundred years
ago," he said. "Well, if I did, I don't remember
it now," I said. "That's a long time ago," he
said, "you coulda forgot." I went back to feeding
the pigeons. Oh, yes, founding the town. It was
coming back to me now. It was on a Wednesday.
A light rain, my horse slowed . . .

The Memories of Fish

Stanley took a day off from the office
and spent the whole day talking to fish in
his aquarium. To the little catfish scuttling
along the bottom he said, "Vacuum that scum,
boy. Suck it up, that's your job." The skinny
pencil fish swam by and he said, "Scribble,
scribble, scribble. Write me a novel, needle-
nose." The angel executed a particularly
masterful left turn and Stanley said, "You're
no angel, but you sure can drive." Then he broke
for lunch and made himself a tuna fish sandwich,
the irony of which did not escape him. Oh no,
he wallowed in it, savoring every bite. Then
he returned to his chair in front of the aquarium.
A swarm of tiny neons amused him. "What do you
think this is, Times Square!" he shouted. And
so it went long into the night. The next morning
Stanley was horribly embarrassed by his behavior
and he apologized to the fish several times,
but they never really forgave him. He had mocked
their very fishiness, and for this there can be
no forgiveness.

The Beautiful Shoeshine

There was no one in the airport. I
couldn't believe it, so I walked down hallway
after hallway. No passengers, no airline
personnel, no one in the little shops and
restaurants. It was spooky. I had a plane
to catch. I had to get to Chicago. But
actually that was a minor detail compared
to the overwhelming sense of otherworldliness
I was experiencing being alone in this huge
terminal, which is always bustling with
hordes of travelers and employees.
Finally, I saw a shoeshine man sitting alone
on his stand. I walked up to him and he
smiled and said, "Shoeshine, Mister?"
"Sure," I said. "You must be having kind of
a slow day," I added. "I'm doing fine," he
said. "It just seems the more people fly
the harder it is to see them." I looked
around. Some blurs were dashing
for the gates, others were asking the time
in high squeaky voices. It must be my fault,
just not flying enough.

Return to the City of White Donkeys
Poems. Copyright © by James Tate. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from Return to the City of White Donkeys: Poems by James Tate
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