Exit, Civilian: Poems
In her second collection, Idra Novey steps in and out of jails, courthouses, and caves to explore what confinement means in the twenty-first century. From the beeping doors of a prison in New York to cellos playing in a former jail in Chile, she looks at prisons that have opened, closed, and transformed to examine how the stigma of incarceration has altered American families, including her own. Novey writes of the expanding prison complex that was once a field and imagines what’s next for the civilians who enter and exit it each day.

On Bafflement

We drew a prison in the sand and it wouldn’t go away.

Not even beneath the foam of the biggest waves.

The torn leg of a starfish clung to the door.

A piece of seaweed clung to the bars over the windows.

The tide came in higher and we thought, So much for the prison.

Somebody asked why did we draw that thing,

And were we growing old watching it this way.

We felt compelled to make love in the sand a few feet off.

Then we drew another one, just to see if we’d make love again.

1107887801
Exit, Civilian: Poems
In her second collection, Idra Novey steps in and out of jails, courthouses, and caves to explore what confinement means in the twenty-first century. From the beeping doors of a prison in New York to cellos playing in a former jail in Chile, she looks at prisons that have opened, closed, and transformed to examine how the stigma of incarceration has altered American families, including her own. Novey writes of the expanding prison complex that was once a field and imagines what’s next for the civilians who enter and exit it each day.

On Bafflement

We drew a prison in the sand and it wouldn’t go away.

Not even beneath the foam of the biggest waves.

The torn leg of a starfish clung to the door.

A piece of seaweed clung to the bars over the windows.

The tide came in higher and we thought, So much for the prison.

Somebody asked why did we draw that thing,

And were we growing old watching it this way.

We felt compelled to make love in the sand a few feet off.

Then we drew another one, just to see if we’d make love again.

19.95 In Stock
Exit, Civilian: Poems

Exit, Civilian: Poems

by Idra Novey
Exit, Civilian: Poems

Exit, Civilian: Poems

by Idra Novey

Overview

In her second collection, Idra Novey steps in and out of jails, courthouses, and caves to explore what confinement means in the twenty-first century. From the beeping doors of a prison in New York to cellos playing in a former jail in Chile, she looks at prisons that have opened, closed, and transformed to examine how the stigma of incarceration has altered American families, including her own. Novey writes of the expanding prison complex that was once a field and imagines what’s next for the civilians who enter and exit it each day.

On Bafflement

We drew a prison in the sand and it wouldn’t go away.

Not even beneath the foam of the biggest waves.

The torn leg of a starfish clung to the door.

A piece of seaweed clung to the bars over the windows.

The tide came in higher and we thought, So much for the prison.

Somebody asked why did we draw that thing,

And were we growing old watching it this way.

We felt compelled to make love in the sand a few feet off.

Then we drew another one, just to see if we’d make love again.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780820343488
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Publication date: 04/15/2012
Series: The National Poetry Series
Pages: 88
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

About The Author
IDRA NOVEY is the author of the novel Ways to Disappear. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into ten languages, and she has written for the New York Times the Los Angeles Times, NPR’s All Things Considered, New York Magazine, and the Paris Review. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poets & Writers Magazine, the PEN Translation Fund, and the Poetry Foundation. She has taught at Princeton University, Columbia, NYU, Fordham, the Catholic University of Chile, and in the Bard Prison Initiative.

IDRA NOVEY is the author of the novel Ways to Disappear. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into ten languages, and she has written for the New York Times the Los Angeles Times, NPR’s All Things Considered, New York Magazine, and the Paris Review. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poets & Writers Magazine, the PEN Translation Fund, and the Poetry Foundation. She has taught at Princeton University, Columbia, NYU, Fordham, the Catholic University of Chile, and in the Bard Prison Initiative.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments

The Little Prison

Then, before understanding, my heart went

Civilian Exiting the Facilities
Riding By on a Sunday
Aspect
Overhead
Parole
The Little Prison Responds
All Ceremonies Start with Inspection
Meanwhile the Watermelon Seed
Titles in the City Library

white as hair whitens. Then, before understanding

Eighteen Hours of Daylight
As Charged
House Arrest
The County Courthouse in the Winter
The Itinerant
Grand Jury, the Sound of Leaves
Slide Show
Table for Six
Parole Hearing
Before They Came for Us
Hearsay
The Little Prison Responds to the City
Titles in the City Library

my heart went white as hair whitens

On Bafflement
The Etymological Beginning
Recent Findings
The Metaphysics of Furniture
The Lava Game
Instead of
The Little Prison Responds
If Vallejo Hadn't Died in Paris
Riot
Titles in the City Library

Then, before understanding, my heart went

O Caldeirão do Diabo
Memorias do Cárcere
Fist and After, El Cinzano
A Maça no Oscuro
The Guest
The Ex-Cárcel of Valparaíso
The Last Beep and Door

Notes

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Related Subjects

Poetry
American Poetry
21st Century American Poetry
Other American Poetry
American poetry->21st century
American poetry->Women authors
Poetry
American Poetry
21st Century American Poetry
Other American Poetry
American poetry->21st century
American poetry->Women authors

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