Middle Distance: Poems Contributor(s): Plumly, Stanley (Author) |
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ISBN: 0393882497 ISBN-13: 9780393882490 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2022 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Poetry | Subjects & Themes - Death, Grief, Loss - Poetry | American - General |
Dewey: 811.54 |
Physical Information: 0.4" H x 5.4" W x 8.1" (0.15 lbs) 96 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: After a diagnosis of cancer, acclaimed poet Stanley Plumly found himself in the middle distance--looking back at his childhood and a rich lifetime of family and friends, while gazing into a future shaped by the press of mortality. In Middle Distance, his final collection, he pushes onward into new territory with extended hybrid forms and revelatory prose pieces. The result is the moving culmination of a long career, a work of fearless, transcendent poems that face down the impending eternal voyage. Plumly populates this collection with tender depictions of poets, family, and friends--the relationships that sustained him throughout his life--as well as unflinching self-portraits. In "White Rhino," for instance, he adopts the voice of the "last of [his] kind," using the rare creature as a canvas to depict the dying, aging poet himself. In "Night Pastorals," he writes vividly and movingly about being on his deathbed, with fragmentary impressions of the other side. In profound lyric narratives, Plumly reaches out to a past that feels closer than ever, returning to the Ohio of his childhood and the shadows of a country at war. Blending documentary and memoir with his signature Keatsian lyricism, Middle Distance contemplates at every turn the horizons of Plumly's life. |