ALSO BY BRENDA HILLMAN
POETRY
White Dress
Fortress
Death Tractates
Bright Existence
Loose Sugar
Cascadia
Pieces of Air in the Epic
Practical Water
CHAPBOOKS
Coffee, 3 A.M.
Autumn Sojourn
The Firecage
AS EDITOR
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
The Grand Permission: New Writingson Poetics and Motherhood
[WITH PATRICIA DIENSTFREY]
Writing the Silences: Selected Poemsof Richard O. Moore
[WITH PAUL EBENKAMP]
SEASONAL WORKS WITH LETTERS ON FIRE
WESLEYAN POETRY
Published by Wesleyan University Press
Middletown, CT 06459
Copyright © 2013 by Brenda Hillman
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013939069
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request
Design and composition by Quemadura
Printed on acid-free, recycled paper in the United States of America
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled stock.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Cover art and design by Quemadura.
TO VANISHED & VANISHING SPECIES
TO JOHN KEATS & WILLIAM BLAKE
TO THE AVOCET & THE ANT
TO OUR PARENTS IN LATE AGE
TO THE CANDLE & THE BURNT MATCH
TO ROBERT DUNCAN & BARBARA GUEST
TO SCIENCE & THE ANCESTORS
TO OUR BROTHERS BRENT & BRAD
TO NATURE & THE WORD NATURE
TO GARY SNYDER & FORREST GANDER
TO THE OUTLAW & THE ELECTRON
TO PINES ON SIERRA GRANITE
TO INVERNESS & OUR CHILDREN, TO COLE & ELLA
TO JOSEPHINE, HAZEL, FIONA & FINN
TO OULIPO & OCCUPY, TO THE BATEAU
TO C. D. WRIGHT & LYN HEJINIAN
TO BOOKSTORES, TO KLM & CC
TO THE GROUP READING PROUST IN THE GARDEN
TO BAUDELAIRE, MICHAEL O & MICHAEL P
TO PARIS, TO NORMA COLE & WALTER BENJAMIN
TO POETS IN NORWAY, BERLIN & CHINA
TO POETS IN LIBYA, MYANMAR, SEOUL & BRAZIL
TO THE SPIRITS AWAKE IN THE NIGHT, TO BODIES
TO WOMEN AWAKE IN THE WORLD
TO PEOPLE MOANING AT GAS PUMPS, TO THE STUDENTS
TO PROTESTING CORPORATE VIOLENCE
TO DUST IN FORECLOSED HOUSES, TO FACTS
TO MARIE HOWE & BRADLEY MANNING
TO HUMANS AT SAINT MARY’S, TO THE SQUIRRELS
TO PROSE, TO LINDA S & JANE V
TO CAL BEDIENT, ’ANNAH SOBELMAN & THE CATS
TO FOOD & THE FUTURE OF POETRY
TO CHILDREN LEARNING TO SPELL, TO THE SPELL
TO FRAN LERNER & NAN NORENE
TO HUMAN & NONHUMAN MEANING, TO LICHEN
TO LEON LEARNING TO READ
TO THE WARBLERS OF CALIFORNIA, TO BASEBALL
TO BOB UPSTAIRS WORKING
TO LOVE & THE UNSAYABLE
TO THE FIRE IN EVERYTHING
CONTENTS
| I. ON THE MIRACLE OF NAMELESS FEELING | |
| To Spirits of Fire After Harvest | 3 |
| Some Kinds of Reading in Childhood | 4 |
| The Fuel of an Infinite Life | 5 |
| Grammar of This Life at Noon | 6 |
| Geminid Showers & Health Care Reform | 7 |
| Late Autumn Storms at Pigeon Point | 8 |
| At the Solstice, a Yellow Fragment | 9 |
| Early Sixties Christmas in the West |
|