Description |
x, 113 pages ; 23 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
Note |
"Lannan literary selection" |
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 Obit, Chang 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, Chang meets her grief and creates a powerful testament for the living"-- Provided by publisher. |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 107, 108-110). |
Subject |
Obituaries -- Poetry.
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Obituaries. (OCoLC)fst01042781
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Genre/Form |
Poetry. (OCoLC)fst01423828
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Poetry.
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ISBN |
9781556595745 paperback |
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1556595743 paperback |
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