Full Description
Where Are the Snows takes its title from the famous refrain of FranÇois Villon's 15th Century poem "Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past." Like that poem, the book functions, among other things, as an ubi sunt, Latin for "Where are they?" as in "Where are the ones who came before us?"—the beautiful, the strong, the virtuous, all of them? In keeping with that long tradition, these poems offer a way to think about life's transience—its beauty, its absurdity, and of course its mortality. Allusive and associative, anti-capitalist and unapologetically political, aligned somewhere between comedy and anger, this poetry juxtaposes the triumphs and tragedies (mostly tragedies) of our current age with those of history, and—by wondering "Where are they?"—explores the questions of where we are now and where we might be going.
Contents
Dress Up
To Replicate the Sacrifice of Christ's Journey into the Desert for 40 Days
Every Now and Then
The Production and Consumption of Goods and Services
Pastoral
Pedestrian Access
Epistolary
The Life of the Mind
Hump Day Has Always Been a Terrible Nickname
How to Act
Humanistic Geography
The Special Organ of Breathing and Smelling
The Ten of Pentacles
A Quiet State After Some Period of Disturbance
A Talisman Attracts, An Amulet Repels
The Moon is the Moon Whether We Call It That Or Not
The Word by Which a Person or Thing Is Denoted
A Human Female Who Has Given Birth to a Baby
To Cherish a Desire with Anticipation
A Power or Ability of the Kind Possessed by Superheroes
Exalted or Worthy of Complete Devotion
I'm Always Up for an Arbitrary Challenge
A Court Game Played with Long-Handled Rackets
Atmospheric Water Vapor Frozen into Ice Crystals
Ekphrastic
Foretelling the Future by a Randomly Chosen Passage in a Book
The State or Period of Being a Child
A Building That Serves as Living Quarters
To Celebrate the Anniversary of Someone's Birth
The Physical Universe Beyond the Earth's Atmosphere
The Point in Time or Space at Which Something Originates
The Surroundings in Which an Animal or Plant Lives or Operates
The Act of Passing Across or Through
The Sweet and Fleshy Product of a Tree or Other Plant
A Place Set Aside for Burial of the Dead
One Authorized to Perform the Sacred Rites
A Source of Inspiration, A Guiding Genius
Ubi Sunt
The Natural Agent that Stimulates Sight and Makes Things Visible
With the Face to the Rear, in the Direction Behind
