Missing Her (New Issues Poetry & Prose) [Paperback]

Claudia Keelan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2009 | Series: New Issues Poetry & Prose

In poems performed via scat singing, via documentary, poems devoted to the sui generis, Missing Her redefines the elegy as a seeking statement.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Like Mary Jo Bang's recent NBCC-winning Elegy, Keelan's new collection examines the nature of grief through poetry, gathering together a sequence of elegies and poems on loss. The opening group of what Keelan (The Devotion Field) calls “Little Elegies” mourns various losses, including a girl who died at 14 (“Imagine, she's finally a sexy teenager”) and famous poets Keelan had known, including Robert Creeley and Kenneth Koch (“I heard the echo of your line resound// Through the hearts of thousands”), as well as the Virgin Mary and the victims of 9/11. Keelan's jerky, fragmentary poems also examine the violence of other contemporary phenomena, such as the video game Grand Theft Auto (“He wins the game!/ Choosing each time to crash/ & not to kill”). Elsewhere, she looks at how language itself points to absence: “I believed the linguist// On the radio who said words are most interesting// When they indicate something not there,// Something not inherently in or of themselves.” The striking long poem “Everybody's Autobiography” recalls Keelan's own and others' pasts. Keelan, one of our best, if too little known, experimental poets, does what she can in this sixth collection to steady “the human boat” which “Came capsizing...// Came lost.” (Oct.)
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Review

Keelan's work, always politically engaged, here takes a tender and personal turn. Much of what is mourned in these interwoven elegies is private, close in, but even the larger, more public themes the Vietnam War, Jesus, the oil industry, September 11 are brought to an intimate scale. The central long poem 'Everybody's Autobiography' achieves a masterful fusion of political history, personal responsibility, and communal grief. A deep-feeling collection not afraid to look loss in the face. --Cole Swensen

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Product Details

• Paperback: 79 pages
• Publisher: New Issues Poetry & Prose; First edition (October 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930974868
• ISBN-13: 978-1930974869
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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