Full Description
"My writing is a search for meaning, beauty, love, an integration of my lost parts." From the widely praised writer comes her fourth collection of startlingly original poetry. With a singular range that inspires, this collection energizes her earlier lyrical narrative with the sass and verve of spoken word, and the slap of slam.
Contents
At the Mic
The Civilization Inside My Head 1
The Girl with the Origami Soul 3
The small Big 5
How to Make an Angel Giggle 6
The Piano at the Centre of the Universe 8
The Reader 10
In Praise of the Gloomy Day 12
Why I Love the Accordion 13
Conversations 15
If I Were an Astronaut's Love Child 16
Painting Mrs. Demerais 17
The Story Underneath 20
Death Is a Pear 22
Waiting 25
The Great House 26
If I Made the World 28
Civilization lives in the throat 30
Evening Street Festival 31
The Book of Breathings 32
Hypnagogia 34
Ode to the Mind 35
The Prophesy 37
Keepers of the Flame 39
Sucked So Dry 41
You're Angry 43
The Cerebral Cathedral 45
Let Come 46 Teenage Girls 47
Persephone Omen 49
The Holy Places of the Earth 50
Love and Bone 51
You Kill My Joy 52
The Crazery of Slavery 53
From the Chorus Line at the Private Men's Club 55
I'm a Conspiracy Theory, Google Me @ Ordinary Soul 56
Story of the Atom 58
Petal 60
This Hello Says Goodbye 61
I Poem You 63
To Pull the Sword from the Stone 65
Swearing Saved My Life 66
Daughter of the A Minor Scale 68
Nightlight 69
Wannabe Witch 71
Old Men 73
God Under the Thumb 75
Old Friends 76
The Bitch I Wear 78
The Dangerous Time 80
Spinster Power 82
Farewell to the Tin Cans 84
The Next Big Thing 86
To Those Who Edit the Exclamation Marks Out of Happiness! 88
The Big Ballyrama 89
If You Are a Poem 90
My Old Shirt 92
The Messiah, the Jets' Hockey Arena, 1979 94
Respect Where It's Due 96
Astonished on 8th Street 99
The Wild of You 100
Conversations with Death 101
You Are Story 103
Poet Enough 104Dissection 106
Lookin' for Joy 108
When No One's Listening 109
Acknowledgements 111
The Slammer's Delight 113
Beth Goobie's Bibliography 114
