| We the Jury: Poems Contributor(s): Miller, Wayne (Author) |
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ISBN: 1571315314 ISBN-13: 9781571315311 Publisher: Milkweed Editions OUR PRICE: $14.40 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2021 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | Subjects & Themes - Family - Poetry | American - General - Poetry | Subjects & Themes - Death, Grief, Loss |
| Dewey: 811.6 |
| LCCN: 2020028691 |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5.3" W x 8.3" (0.35 lbs) 104 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A boy asks his father what it means to die; a poet wonders whether we can truly know another's thoughts; a man tries to understand how extreme violence and grace can occupy the same space. These are the questions Wayne Miller tackles in We the Jury: the hard ones, the impossible ones. From an academic dinner party disturbing in its crassness and disaffection to a family struggling to communicate gently the permanence of death, Miller situates these poems--taut and spare, yet rich in their images and full of unexpected turns--in dilemma. He faces moments of profound discomfort, grief, and even joy with a philosopher's curiosity, a father's compassion, and an overarching inquiry at the crossroads of ethics and art: what is the poet's role in making sense of human behavior? A bomb crater-turned-lake "exploding with lilies," a home lost during the late-aughts housing crash--these images and others, powerful and resonant, attempt to answer that question. Candid and vulnerable, Miller sits with us while we puzzle: we all wish we knew what to tell our children about death. But he also pushes past this and other uncertainties, vowing--and inviting us--to "expand our relationship / with Death," and with every challenging, uncomfortable subject we meet. In the face of questions that seem impossible to answer, We the Jury offers not a shrug, but curiosity, transparency, an opening of the arms. |