ALSO BY REBECCA DUNHAM
The Flight Cage
The Miniature Room
Glass Armonica
©2017, Text by Rebecca Dunham
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.
(800) 520-6455
Published 2017 by Milkweed Editions
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Gretchen Achilles
Cover photo by Carrie Vonderhaar / Ocean Futures Society / National Geographic Creative
Author photo by Amanda Crim / Second Nature Photography
17 18 19 20 21 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Jerome Foundation; the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Also, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit www.milkweed.org.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dunham, Rebecca, 1973- author.
Title: Cold pastoral : poems / Rebecca Dunham.
Description: Minneapolis : Milkweed Editions, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016029440 (print) | LCCN 2016037781 (ebook) | ISBN 9781571314789 (softcover) | ISBN 9781571319395 (e-book)
Subjects: | BISAC: POETRY / American / General.
Classification: LCC PS3604.U54 A6 2017 (print) | LCC PS3604.U54 (ebook) | DDC 811/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016029440
Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Cold Pastoral was printed on acid-free 30% postconsumer-waste paper by Versa Press.
CONTENTS
5 Elegy, Sung in Dirt
6 Mud
7 Field Note, 2011
8 Et in Arcadia Ego
9 Suburban Elegy
10 Field Note, 2011
11 Initial Exploration Report: Macondo Well
12 Blowout
13 To Walk on Air
14 Elegy for the Eleven
15 Daybreak
16 There Lies the Hydra
17 To Narcissus
18 Backyard Pastoral
19 In Which She Considers the Water
20 Elegy, a Catalogue
21 Field Note, 2011
22 Elegy Written in Oil
1 A Hive of Boxes
Acknowledgments
Carry abroad the urgent need, the scene,
to photograph and to extend the voice,
to speak this meaning.
Voices to speak to us directly.
—MURIEL RUKEYSER,
“The Book of the Dead”
MNEMOSYNE TO THE POET
For you, memory is but
an oil lamp to snuff, left to
smoke. Diademed by earth’s
velvet mantle. So easy
for you to ignore: hadal