Riffraff
Poems
1st Edition
Published on 16. February 2011
80 pages
978-0-8071-3763-5 (ISBN)
Description
Stephen Cushman's Riffraff embodies the spirit of its title, a Middle English word for "e,every particle"e, or "e,things of small value."e, In this striking collection, scraps of the overlooked, and distasteful -- a prostitute passed in the street, the speaker's own forgotten dreams, toothless dogs rolling in deer offal -- become occasions to meditate on the rich experiences from which we too often turn away.The poems reflect on the possibilities of language, the natural world, politics, history, eros, aging, family, and spiritual devotion. Without pretension, Cushman values "e,adepts who can dwell in the kiosk of a kiss."e, Skillfully, he transmutes his own curiosity and surprise into moments of shared instruction. "e,Keep low,"e, he whispers. "e,Stay put. / Learn from the leaves."e,Riffraff culls what we have discarded, saves from abandonment the notions we have taken for granted, and, indeed, venerates every particle.
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Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Dark Meat
- Hydrological
- From a Visitor's Guide
- Under the Table
- Cardinal Rule
- Under the Auspices
- Prickly Brambles
- Striking Distance
- Cabin Fever
- Foul-Weather Friends
- Winter Tactics
- Earplugs
- Father Sutra
- Brothers at Breakfast
- Cross Country Practice
- One More Thing a Mate Makes Fun Of
- On the Rocks
- Presbyopia
- Blurbs for Thursday
- A Way with Words
- Take My Advice
- Windshake
- Sacrificial
- Ways People Wake
- Wind Advisory
- American Dream
- Patriotic
- Politics
- Jogger at the Bloody Angle
- Sherman, After Louisiana
- General Post Office, Dublin
- Reflective
- Aramaic in Sednaya
- Desert Desideratum
- Love Junk
- Coastal Acoustics
- Lower Window for Ventilation
- To a Prostitute on Fleur de Lis Street
- Pair of Anklets, Mughal, India, Seventeenth Century
- Excursion into Philosophy
- Ten Tankas
- Smaller Dog
- Near Nora
- Communion of Saints
- Toothbrush
- If the Kama Sutra Were Our Only Book
- Unspoken Agreement
- Beat This, Narcissus
- That Desire Is a Wish to Engage in Sexual Activity and of its Triggering by Thoughts or Verbal and Visual Cues
- Beside the Point
- Taste the Fresh Juice of the Pomegranates
- À Grande Vitesse
- Parkinson's Clinic, Cezanne on the Wall
- Missionary Position
- Butt-Naked Old Men
- The Story of My Life
- Old Dogs
- To Future People
- Clasped
- Home on Leave
- Grape Hyacinth
- Trimmed with Crepe
- Mother's Day Card
- To All the Dreams I Have Forgotten
- World Events
- After the Bombings
- Taps
