Description |
1 online resource (x, 113 pages) |
Contents |
My father's frontal lobe -- My mother -- Victoria Chang -- Voice mail -- Language -- My children, children -- Each time I write hope -- Language -- Future -- Civility -- My mother's lungs -- Privacy -- My mother's teeth -- I tell my children -- Friendships -- Gait -- Logic -- Optimism -- Ambition -- Chair -- Do you smell my cries? -- I tell my children -- Tears -- Memory -- Language -- Tomas Tranströmer -- Approval -- Sometimes all I have -- You don't need a thing -- Secrets -- Music -- Appetite -- Form -- Optimism -- I can't say with faith -- To love anyone -- Hands -- Oxygen -- Reason -- Home -- Memory -- I am a miner. the light burns blue -- Caretakers -- Subject matter -- Sadness -- Empathy -- Obituary writer -- Do you see the tree? -- Doctors -- Yesterday -- Grief -- Blame -- Time -- Today I show you -- Control -- Situation -- Obsession -- Clock -- Hope -- Head -- Blue dress - Hindsight -- Priest -- I put on a shirt -- Where do they find hope? -- Car -- My mother's favorite potted tree -- Similes -- Affection -- Home -- When a mother dies -- Bees -- Clothes -- Guilt -- Ocean -- Face -- My children say no -- Have you ever looked -- America -- I am ready to |
Summary |
After her mother died, poet Victoria Chang refused to write elegies. Rather, she distilled her grief during a feverish two weeks by writing scores of poetic obituaries for all she lost in the world. In this book, she writes of "the way memory gets up after someone has died and starts walking." These poems reinvent the form of newspaper obituary to both name what has died ("civility," "language," "the future," "Mother's blue dress") and the cultural impact of death on the living. Whereas elegy attempts to immortalize the dead, an obituary expresses loss, and the love for the dead becomes a conduit for self-expression. In this unflinching and lyrical book, the poet meets her grief and creates a powerful testament for the living. -- Provided by publisher |
Notes |
"Lannan literary selection." |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 107, 108-110) |
Notes |
Print version record |
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Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 2021 Poetry |
Subject |
Obituaries -- Poetry
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Grief -- Poetry
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Parent and adult child -- Poetry
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Parents -- Death -- Poetry
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POETRY -- American -- Asian American.
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Parents -- Death
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Parent and adult child
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Grief
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Obituaries
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Genre/Form |
poetry.
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Poetry
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Poetry.
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Poésie.
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Form |
Electronic book
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ISBN |
9781619322189 |
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1619322188 |
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