Full Description
"'Expect poison of the standing water,' Blake warned, highlighting the dangers of imaginative stagnation. I'm now tempted to believe that Blake himself has sent us Derrick Austin and his remarkable collection, Trouble the Water. At once gospel and troubadour song, these deeply spiritual and expansively erotic poems are lucid, unflinching, urgent. This is an extraordinary debut." --Mary Szybist, winner of the National Book Award Rich in religious and artistic imagery, Trouble the Water is an intriguing exploration of race, sexuality, and identity, particularly where self-hood is in constant flux. These intimate, sensual poems interweave pop culture and history--moving from the Bible through several artistic eras--to interrogate what it means to be, as Austin says, fully human as a "queer, black body" in 21st century America.
Contents
Contents
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Tidewater Psalm / 1
Devotions / 2
Okaloosa / 3
Pass-A-Grille / 4
Breakwater / 5
Torch Song / 7
Blaxploitation / 8
Bow Down / 10
Major Arcana: Judgement / 11
We're Standing on the Sun / 12
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Catacombs of San Callisto / 14
Sans Souci / 15
Illumination / 21
St. Sebastian's Executioner / 23
Byzantine Gold / 24
City of Rivers:
City of Rivers / 26
Crown Glass / 27
Fountain Statue / 28
Effigy Without a Body / 29
Antaeus / 30
Cathedral / 31
The Bait / 32
Little Gospels / 33
Ghost Slipper / 34
Conveyance / 35
No Union / 36
Heaven and Earth / 37
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Summertime / 39
Deepwater / 40
Apology / 41
Persian Blue / 42
Dominion / 44
Jezebel / 45
Cedars of Lebanon / 46
Blue / 48
Canaan / 49
Dead Gull / 50
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Sleeping Alone / 52
St. Mathew's Pentecostal Church / 53
Primer for Sainthood / 55
Sweet Talk / 56
Magnolia / 57
Sweet Boys / 58
Visiting Mount Calvary Cemetery / 59
At the Grave of Zora Neale Hurston / 60
Vespers / 61
