Full Description
America's much celebrated poet-undertaker Thomas Lynch is renowned for his thought-provoking poems on life, faith, doubt and death. This new retrospective shows the passage of his work over time, 'a pilgrimage of sorts through growing old and facing death - subjects that caregivers know all too well. Lynch's upfront, unvarnished style is likely to resolate with many who have come face to face with life's most important questions' (Mary Plummer, New York Times).
Lynch - like Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams - is a poet who writes about real things with language rooted in the everyday yet masterfully infused with power. He spent his working life as an undertaker in Midwest America, becoming in his off-hours a writer of exceptional insight with much to say about life's questions and mysteries - big and small. Drawing on his own daily routine, he transforms the mundane task of preparing the dead into life-affirming accounts of how we live our lives. His lyrical, elegiac poems describe the dead citizens of of his home town, his own family relationships, and scenes and myths from his Irish Catholic upbringing.
Contents
Cloud of Witnesses: An Introduction • 19
from SKATING WITH HEATHER GRACE
Michael's Reply to the White Man • 33
A Death • 35
Venice • 36
The Blood We Paid For • 37
A Family of Fishermen • 39
Tatyana • 40
Like My Father Waking Early • 41
Marriage • 43
Lessons from Berkeley • 44
O Canada • 45
The Widow • 46
A Dream of Death in the First Person • 47
Skating with Heather Grace • 48
Learning Gravity • 50
A Clearing in the Woods • 57
A Note on the Rapture to His True Love • 58
Pornography • 59
The Liturgist • 60
I Felt Myself Turning • 61
A Good Death Even When It Kills You • 62
To Her Sisters on the Nature of the Universe • 63
Where It Came From • 64
Noon on Saturday • 65
Wormwood • 67
Pruning • 68
The Grandmothers • 69
For the Ex-Wife on the Occasion of Her Birthday • 70
from GRIMALKIN & OTHER POEMS
Attende Domine • 75
Aisling • 76
At the Opening of Oak Grove Cemetery Bridge • 78
Green Bananas • 81
Adoro Te Devote • 82
Grimalkin • 83
Casablanca • 85
In Paradisum • 86
Inviolata • 87
Liberty • 88
No Prisoners • 89
O Gloriosa Virginum • 92
Rhododendrons • 93
That Scream If You Ever Hear It • 94
The Nines • 96
The Lives of Women • 97
Tommy • 98
West Highland • 99
from STILL LIFE IN MILFORD
Art History, Chicago • 103
Kisses • 105
Bishop's Island • 106
Rentals Ledger • 107
An Evening Walk to the Sea by Friesians • 108
Heavenward • 110
Couplets • 111
The Moveen Notebook • 112
The Old Operating Theatre, London, All Souls, Night • 124
She Instructs the Brethren on the Laws of Love • 125
Still Life in Milford—Oil on Canvas by Lester Johnson • 126
from WALKING PAPERS
Euclid • 131
Montbretia • 133
Fr. Andrews • 135
To Be Among These Elegant Voices • 136
Corpses Do Not Fret Their Coffin Boards • 139
Oh Say Grim Death • 140
The Life of Fiction • 142
After Your Going • 143
Thirteen for Sean at Thirty • 144
Dear Mr. President • 145
Local Heroes • 147
Dear Mr. Vice President • 149
Himself • 152
Dear Madam Secretary • 153
On a Bar of Chinese Soap • 155
Dear Messrs. Attorneys General • 156
Walking Papers • 158
Calling • 162
Refusing at Fifty-Two to Write Sonnets • 165
from THE SIN-EATER: A BREVIARY
The Sin-Eater • 168
Argyle in Agony • 169
Argyle's Vapors • 170
Argyle's Balance • 171
Argyle's Ejaculations • 172
Argyle's Retreat • 173
Argyle's Dream of the Church Dove • 174
Argyle in Carrigaholt • 175
Argyle's Return to the Holy Island • 176
Argyle's Stone • 177
Argyle at Loop Head • 178
Argyle's Eucharist • 179
A Corporal Work of Mercy • 180
Argyle Considers the Elements • 181
Argyle Among the Moveen Lads • 182
His Ambulations • 183
His Repasts • 184
He Considers Not the Lilies but Their Excellencies • 185
He Weeps Among the Clare Antiquities • 186
Argyle at the Ennis Friary • 187
He Posits Certain Mysteries • 188
His Purgations • 189
Argyle on Knocknagaroon • 190
Recompense His Paraclete • 191
CLOUD OF WITNESSES: NEW POEMS
A Laving Song • 194
Libra • 195
Accordion • 196
You Who Never Came In • 198
Nativity • 199
Yossef • 200
Some Octaves on Holy Orders • 201
When She Knew • 204
Recompense • 205
How Howard Armstrong Learned the Verities • 206
The Desert Years • 207
At Moyarta • 208
Twelve Days of Christmas • 209
What Shall We Say? • 210
Receipt • 213
St. Kevin and the Temptress • 214
Personal • 215
Her Mother's Irises • 216
San Cassiano • 217
Par Rum Pum Pum Pum • 218
Waterfowl at Summer's End • 220
Moveen Solstice • 221
Flotilla • 222
Genesis 3 • 223
Franchise 2016 • 224
Corrine Among the Fronds of Basil • 226
Gratis • 227
Double Sonnet for the Florist's Son • 228
Interment • 229
Old Dogs • 230
Theodicy: A Lament • 231
The Prince Conti • 233
Another Miracle • 234
In the Gents Loo of the Stella Maris • 235
To His Grandchildren as Dark Draws Hither • 236
Priestess • 238
Digitas Paternae Dextrae • 239
Morning Among Piebalds • 240
Buskers • 241
Meadowhawk • 242
The Sick of the Palsy Healed and His Sins Forgiven • 243
Benediction • 244
Little Elegy • 245
