Pleasure Dome
Also by Yusef Komunyakaa
Dedications & Other Darkhorses (1977)
Lost in the Bonewheel Factory (1979)
Copacetic (1984)
I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head (1986)
Toys in a Field (1986)
Dien Cai Dau (1988)
February in Sydney (1989)
Magic City (1992)
Neon Vernacular (1993)
Thieves of Paradise (1998)
Blue Notes (2000)
Talking Dirty to the Gods (2000)
Taboo (2004)
YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA
Pleasure Dome
NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown, Connecticut
Published by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT 06459
©2001 by Yusef Komunyakaa
All rights reserved
First Wesleyan paperback 2004
Printed in the United States of America 5 4
CIP data appear at the end of the book.
ISBNs for the paperback edition:
ISBN–13: 978–0–8195–6739–0
ISBN–10: 0–8195–6739–6
Cover illustration: Wifredo Lam, 1902–1982. Study for The Jungle, tempera, with touches of pastel, on tan wove paper laid down on canvas, 1942, 177.4 × 121.9 cm. The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection, 138.1991. Photograph © 2000, The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following publications, in which the “New Poems” originally appeared: Amazon.com, The American Poetry Review, The Chicago Review, Crab Orchard Review, Faultline, The Harvard Advocate, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Irish Review, National Public Radio—“All Things Considered,” Ploughshares, Seneca Review, Shenandoah, 64, Slate.
Poems in “Early Uncollected” appeared in Writer’s Forum and Intro 7/8.
I am grateful also to the publishers of my previous books: Dedications & Other Darkhorses, Rocky Mountain Creative Arts Journal, 1977; Lost in the Bonewheel Factory, Lynx House Press, 1979; Copacetic, Wesleyan University Press, 1984; Toys in a Field, Black River Press, 1986; I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head, Wesleyan University Press, 1986; Dien Cai Dau, Wesleyan University Press, 1988; February in Sydney, Matchbooks, 1989; Magic City, Wesleyan University Press, 1992; Neon Vernacular, Wesleyan University Press, 1993; Thieves of Paradise, Wesleyan University Press, 1998.
To the memory of Reetika & Jehan
Contents
Tuesday Night at the Savoy Ballroom 7
Waiting for a Tree Through a Window 34
The Life & Times of Billy Boy 35