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Overview
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
Paterson Award for Literary Excellence.
"What Hicok's getting at [in Elegy Owed] is both the necessity and the inadequacy of language, the very bluntness of which (talk about a paradox) makes it all the more essential that we engage with it as a precision instrument, a force of clarity, of (at times) awful grace."—Los Angeles Times
"[A] fluid, absorbing new collection. . . . Highly recommended."—Library Journal, starred review
When asked in an interview "What would Bob Hicok launch from a giant sling shot?" he answered "Bob Hicok." Elegy Owed—Hicok's eighth book—is an existential game of Twister in which the rules of mourning are broken and salvaged, and "you can never step into the same not going home again twice."
From "Notes for a time capsule":
The twig in. I'll put the twig in I carry in my pocket
and my pocket and my eye, my left eye. A cup
of the Ganges and the bacteria from shit
in the Ganges and the anyway ablutions of rainbow-
robed Hindus in the Ganges. The dawnline of the mountain
with contrail above like an accent in a language
too large for my mouth. A mirror
so whoever opens the past will see themselves
in the past and fall back from their face
speaking to them across centuries or hours
or the nearnevers . . .
Bob Hicok's worked as an automotive die designer and a computer system administrator before becoming an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech. He lives in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781556594380 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Copper Canyon Press |
| Publication date: | 09/09/2014 |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Pilgrimage 3
Elegy with lies 4
The days are getting longer 5
O 7
The story of 5:33 8
Knockturn 10
Good-bye, topspin 12
Elegy to hunger 14
Coming to life 15
Ode to magic 16
Pre-planning 18
I ah g 20
Sound scape 21
You name this one 22
A request 24
One of those things we say 25
Making do 27
The gift 31
Listen 32
A country mapped with invisible ink 33
Elegy to unnamed sources 35
The missing 37
Some recent weather 40
Born again 41
Scarecrow overhears himself thinking 44
Elegy's 45
Desire 46
Take care 48
Obituary for the middle class 50
Song of the recital 51
Leave a message 52
Blue prints 53
What the great apes refer to as a philosophy of life 55
The order of things 59
How we came to live where we live 60
The heart of the soul of the gist of the matter 62
To speak somewhat figuratively for S. 63
Absence makes the heart. That's it: absence makes the heart. 65
A very small bible 66
Notes for a time capsule 67
Another holiday has come and gone 69
Ink 70
Shed and dream 72
You can never step into the same not going home again twice 73
A poem that wanted to be a letter but didn't know how 75
Owe is to ode as whatever is to I don't know 77
Ode to ongoing 78
Elegy to the time it takes to realize the futility of elegies 81
Love 82
Elegy ode 83
Confessions of a nature lover 85
Circles in the sky 86
Something like an oath 88
Elegy owed 90
Missing 91
As I was saying 93
Speaking American 95
Moving day 97
Excerpts from mourning 99
Life 101
Sunny, infinite chance of rain 102
In lieu of building a crib 104
Equine aubade 105
I tell myself the future 107
Good-bye 108
About the Author 111