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The Book of Goodbyes by Jillian Weise

Source: Academy of American Poets membership benefit
Paperback, 88 pgs
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The Book of Goodbyes by Jillian Weise, recipient of the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award in 2013 and the 2013 James Laughlin Award, is a collection of poems that highlights the power of goodbye and how it can free us from limitation.  Whether those limitations are self-imposed or imposed upon us by others or the outside distractions that keep us locked in place.

There are several poems in the collection about laws against the disabled being seen in public and the societal burdens that come with those medical miracles — prosthetic legs, for instance — and how those “norms” are meant to weigh down the potential of those human beings. While these “norms” must be recognized to be overcome, it is a big obstacle to overcome, especially when those limitations or “norms” become self-imposed limitations on the self. Saying goodbye to those can be a hard process to perform and a distance that can be difficult to maintain, but there is an inherent power in saying goodbye to those things.

Goodbyes (pg. 50)

begin long before you hear them
and gain speed and come out of 
the same place as other words.
They should have their own
place to come from, the elbow
perhaps, since elbows look
funny and never weep. Why
are you proud of me? I said
goodbye to you forty times.
I see your point. That is
an achievement unto itself.
My mom wants me to write
a goodbye poem. It should fit 
inside a card and use the phrase,
“You are one powerful lady.”
There is nothing powerful
about me though you might 
think so from the way I spit.
I don’t want to say goodbye
to you anymore. I heard
the first wave was an accident.
It happened in the Cave 
of the Hands in Santa Cruz.
The four of them were drinking
and someone killed
a wild boar and someone else
said, “Hey look, I put my hand
in it. Saying goodbye is like that.
You put your hand in it and then
you take your hand back.

Weise touches upon the hardships and the freedom of goodbye, but she also talks about its empowering nature. There is a willfulness to when we choose to make those breaks, and there are many of those moments in this collection.  The Book of Goodbyes by Jillian Weise, recipient of the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award in 2013 and the 2013 James Laughlin Award, offers a great deal to discuss, and would be an interesting selection for a book club discussion.

About the Poet: (Photo credit: Guillermo Morizot Hires)

Jillian Weise was born in Houston, Texas, in 1981. She studied at Florida State University; the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she was the Fred Chappell Fellow; and the University of Cincinnati.

Weise is the author of The Book of Goodbyes (BOA Editions, 2013), which received the 2013 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, which recognizes a superior second book of poetry by an American poet. Her debut poetry collection, The Amputee’s Guide to Sex, was published by Soft Skull Press in 2007.

 

 

 

 

Mailbox Monday #284

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has a permanent home at its own blog.

To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links.  Leave yours too.

Also, each week, Leslie, Vicki, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what we got from the library sale for the little one:

1. Curious George and the Puppies by Margret Rey and H.A. Rey for 25 cents.

When George and the man with the yellow hat visit the animal shelter, George is delighted to discover a large litter of puppies. At first, George just wants to pet the puppy, but then he wants to hold one. George’s curiosity gets the best of him, and soon puppies are everywhere.

2. ¡Vamos a bailar! Let’s Dance! The Dora the Explorer Music Collection for 50 cents.

3. Skippyjon Jones in the Dog-House by Judy Schachner for 25 cents.

For another loco adventure. In his room for a time-out, Skippyjon Jones lets his imagination take him to a shack where his Chihuahua friends are yipping and yapping and hiding out from the bad Bobble-ito, who has taken over their doghouse. How El Skippito chills the Chihuahuas and banishes the Bobble-ito will make more amigos for this endearing and irresistible rascal.

4. The Mermaid’s Lullaby by Kate Spohn for 50 cents.

Glitter sparkles on every page of this genuine treasure by Kate Spohn, whose work has been described as “truly extraordinary” by the Horn Book Reviewand “luminous” by Kirkus Reviews. This is a tender sea song, sung to sleepy mermaid babies by mer-mommies and mer-daddies. From the tapping of the sea urchins and the sound of bubbly voices to flashing fish and the circle of mermaid dancers, children will be lulled by words as soothing as lapping waves and captivated by art that is joyful and inviting.

5.  New Tales: Pandora and Vittorio, the Vampire by Anne Rice for 50 cents.

In Pandora, fledgling vampire David Talbot chronicles the history of Pandora, a two-thousand-year-old vampire, and in fifteenth-century Renaissance Florence, Vittorio finds his world shattered when his entire family is destroyed in an act of unholy violence and embarks on a desperate quest for revenge, in Vittorio, the Vampire, in an omnibus edition.

6.  The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan from a friend.

What should we have for dinner?” To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore’s dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn’t—which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore’s dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we’re realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore’s Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan’s brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America.

7.  The Book of Goodbyes by Jillian Weise from Academy of American Poets.

Weise’s collection “examines the daily life and consciousness of a speaker with a disability willing to confront all taboos associated with sex, intimacy, identity, gender, and love.” – Coldfront Magazine

The Los Angeles Times described Jillian Weise’s debut poetry collection as “a fearless dissection of the taboo and the hidden.” In this second collection she forwards her bold, sexy poetics by chronicling an affair with a man she names “Big Logos.” These poems throw into question sex, the law, identity, sentiment, and power, shifting between lyric and narrative, hyper-realism and magical realism, fact and fiction.

8.  Put Your Hands In by Chris Hosea from Academy of American Poets.

“Exactly a century ago, the Armory Show brought European avant-garde art to New York. We are still experiencing its consequences. Among the works on view was Marcel Duchamp’s notorious Nude Descending a Staircase, which a derisive critic wanted to rename ‘Explosion in a Shingle Factory.’ Both titles come to mind as one reads Chris Hosea’s Put Your Hands In, which somehow subsumes derision and erotic energy and comes out on top. Maybe that’s because ‘poetry is the cruelest month, ‘ as he says, correcting T. S. Eliot. Transfixed in midparoxysm, the poems also remind us of Samuel Beckett’s line (in Watt): ‘The pain not yet pleasure, the pleasure not yet pain.’ One feels plunged in a wave of happening that is about to crest.” — John Ashbery, from his judge’s citation for the Walt Whitman Award.

9.  Reflections of Hostile Revelries by Jennifer C. Wolfe from the poet for review.

Jennifer C. Wolfe’s new collection Reflections of Hostile Revelries is the voice in our heads that needs to be spoken. In this progressive work, Wolfe targets our richest and most powerful enemies addressing their essential flaws and epic mistakes while reminding the reader these are the exact people running our countries. Reflections of Hostile Revelries is direct and honest oral poetics and will leave you tired, but eager to read on. —Jordan Antonucci, Editor, Monkey Puzzle Press “Jennifer Wolfe’s second book, Reflections of Hostile Reveries, takes as its subject the American political landscape. In biting and often hilarious poems that spare no one, Wolfe skewers the absurdity and inanity of our politics and politicians. Everyone gets called out–from Sarah Palin to Barack Obama, from Chris Christie to the Supreme Court. Wolfe showcases her talents in a wide range of forms, from long-lined, discursive poems to haikus.

What did you receive?