War Bird (Phoenix Poets)

From Three at 4:43 And here comes my friend, limping on his heavy boot, the heel come off. A cobbler's shop appears, and I buy the black nails, the dwarf's hammer, glue and strapping. I work hard on it, bending there until he speaks and walks on. But as he is dead, his voice and step make no sound. In his third book of poems, David Gewanter takes on wartime America, showing our personal costs and inextricable complicities. The constructs of our social lives, the conventions of our political values, the ambitions of our private fantasies—all these collide comically and tragically. Here, the far right marries the far left, and the sacred is undone by the profane. Gewanter's ironic vision pulls together details from science, history, philosophy, the disappearing dailies, and the emotional life of an engaged and singular mind into poems on the move with tense rhythms, rich correspondences, and daring hairpin turns. War Bird gives the lie to the shining moral complacencies of the homefront. Unsettling yet radiant, this collection is a book for troubled times, for what Whitman called, in “1861,” our “hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.” (20090410) Contents 10 Acknowledgments 12 The Old Parables 14 One: Day Book 16 In again Out again 18 Body Text 22 Hamlet of Merano: The Lotus Eaters 25 Break-Up Café 28 Baudelaire's Day Book 33 Desaparecidos 35 The Giants' Causeway 38 Book of the Blurbers 41 Three at 4:43 44 1972: The Battery 45 Two: American Incognito 48 Jacopone Pietà: Justice 50 American Incognito 51 Pediment 59 Michelangelo: Three Poems in Black 62 Mistress Umlaut 64 Möbius 66 Surrey: Walled Garden 71 Against the Grain 73 Cook at Maui 75 Three: War Bird 78 War Bird: A Journal 80 Notes 86 The old parables Day book In again out again Body text Hamlet of Merano: the lotus eaters Break-up café Baudelaire's day book Desaparecidos The Giant's Causeway Book of the blurbers Three at 4:43 The battery American incognito Jacopone pietà: justice American incognito Pediment Michaelangelo: three poems in black Mistress Umlaut Möbius Surrey: walled garden Against the grain Cook at Maui War bird War bird: a journal. A book of poems that takes us on a journey through wartime America, showing our personal costs and inextricable complicities.