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The
First Inhabitants of Arcadia
Poems by Christopher Bursk
Delves
into the mysteries inherent in the alphabet
Herman
Melville, Matthew Arnold, Sarah Orne Jewett, Dusty Rhodes,
and Hoyt Wilhelm skinny-dip and pick up gondoliers and cut
figure eights into the ice in Christopher Bursk’s new
collection. But the main cast of characters for these poems
is the alphabet itself, “the first inhabitants of Arcadia,
/ now homesick, curious exiles from Eden.” Here are
a boy’s first investigations into the nature of language
as he studies the backs of baseball cards, and a young man’s
infatuation with the “F-word.” The titles sing
their lettered songs: “An Ode to j,” “M-m-m
Good!” and “O in Trouble.”
Here
are “reading lessons,” the author’s exploration
of the curses and blessings of the word. It is about the fall
from paradise and the gifts that fall makes possible. And
over the whole book broods the great lexicographer, Samuel
Johnson, that deeply troubled caretaker of the mother tongue.
More than an ABC book, this collection asks questions at the
very heart of how we understand the world and shows us the
glory and silliness at the heart of human life.
“Chris
Bursk honors the human spirit without ignoring the destructive
forces around us. What’s more, he does it with language
that never alters. How much I admire his intelligent, elegant,
and deeply compassionate work.”
—Sy
Safransky, editor, The Sun
“In
these lively and moving poems, Bursk implicates English itself
in his coming-of-age conflicts. And what Bursk humorously
wishes in his lyric about ‘suffixes and prefixes’
is true—he is ‘Irreplaceable, / incomparable,
indispensable.’
—Philip
Fried, editor, Manhattan Review
“Armed
with a refreshing sense of play and an eye for the luminous
moment, Bursk is one of our best practitioners of the narrative
poem. Yet he is also wonderfully lyrical: his language is
honed and hits you where you live.”
—Steven
Huff, author of The Water We Came From
Christopher
Bursk, recipient of NEA, Guggenheim, and Pew
fellowships, is professor of English at Bucks County Community
College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of a number of collections,
including Cell Count, Ovid at Fifteen, and The
Improbable Swervings of Atoms, winner of the 2004 Donald
Hall Prize in Poetry. He has been recognized for his work
with prisoners, the homeless, food banks, and women’s
shelters.
March
136 pages
5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
$16.00 Paper
ISBN-10: 1-55728-813-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-55728-813-4
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