Pathogenesis [Perfect Paperback]

Peggy Munson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2008

Put whippets in your heart and let the rabbits breed. They will. Like still-wet lagomorphs crawling over each other in innate proximity, Peggy Munson's poems confine the reader inside a lantern, buzzing at the headlights. Munson addresses illness, family, and the blood running through both with malleable tenacity. Noelle Kocot describes Munson's work as "free from a lot of the burden of contemporary poetry conventions, [existing] like a small island in the fiery sun, alone, yet willing to be utterly beautiful, utterly strange and utterly itself." Pathogenesis was a finalist or semifinalist for numerous prizes, including the Dorset Prize, the Carnegie-Mellon Poetry Series, the Beatrice Hawley Award, the Verse Prize, and the University of Wisconsin Pollack Prize.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peggy Munson is the author of the novel, Origami Striptease, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards. She also edited the anthology, Stricken: Voices from the Hidden Epidemic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She has published in such places as Best American Poetry 2003, Literature and Medicine, Marginalia, Spoon River Poetry Review, Sinister Wisdom, 13th Moon, Blithe House Quarterly, Lodestar Quarterly, Margin: Exploring Modern Magical Realism, Best American Erotica, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Peggy has also been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, and Cottages at Hedgebrook. Pathogenesis was a finalist or semifinalist for numerous prizes including the Dorset Prize, the Carnegie-Mellon Poetry Series, the Beatrice Hawley Award, the Verse Prize, and the University of Wisconsin Pollack Prize. Bay Windows described Peggy as a "master of the written word," and Rebecca Brown dubbed her a "stylist extraordinaire." An Illinois native, Peggy now resides in the woods of Western Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 110 pages
• Publisher: Switchback Books (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978617223
• ISBN-13: 978-0978617226
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,279,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fearlessly delving into the darkness of the human psyche, June 14, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pathogenesis (Perfect Paperback)

Pathogenesis is a free-verse poetry collection that has been named a finalist or semifinalist for a number of prizes, including the Dorset Prize, the Carnegie-Mellon Poetry Series, the Beatrice Hawley Award, the Verse Prize, and the University of Wisconsin-Pollack Prize. Fearlessly delving into the darkness of the human psyche, and exploring the morbid impulse that drives mankind despite its crippling fear of death, Pathogenesis also reveals how creation can come from destruction. The haunting, free-verse lyrics show the way in this transformative and unforgettable collection. "Up and down Hope Street / children outgrew their underwear / and death escaped from its zoos. / My motor ran on, elegiac, / and I saw the red light but disobeyed it / because I wanted to be dead / but felt remarkably good, / better than I'd felt in months. / I left my blood in its jar of protest, / to die color-blind, to invert Christmas: / I didn't care whose hell it was. / The police came to question me / so I would envy the wild horses in their guns."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful and unique and moving book, November 5, 2008

By 

Jodi-Hummingbird - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Pathogenesis (Perfect Paperback)

Noelle Kocot describes Munson's work as "free from a lot of the burden of contemporary poetry conventions, [existing] like a small island in the fiery sun, alone, yet willing to be utterly beautiful, utterly strange and utterly itself."

After reading this book, I'd have to agree. I know very little about poetry, and to be honest I dislike most of the poetry I've read, but I got so much out of this little book. Peggy's use of words is so unique. So clever. I'm now a dedicated poetry convert!

Pathogenesis made me cry within just a few minutes of starting reading. Admittedly I have the same devastating and disabling neurological disease (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) to a similar severity as Peggy, so I could really relate, but even without that, this book is just so powerful. I can't imagine anyone with any compassion or humanity coming away unaffected.

It's unlike any other poetry I have read, it is so beautiful.... and at the same time so, so sad. Readers get a brief taste of what it is like to live with a devastating neurological and cardiovascular disease, as well as how much the extreme level of suffering is increased when you have a disease that is subject to a publically accepted campaign of misinformation, misrepresentation and outright lies, for mere financial gain. When you are so ill but get almost no appropriate medical care, or are treated unfairly and cruelly by friends and family, because of these same scientifically unsupportable lies.

The last poem in the book in particular just kills me.

The book is also beautifully and simply designed.

Peggy Munson is immensely talented. Those not familiar with severe M.E. can have no idea what an achievement this small book is, and how much pain and suffering must have gone into the writing of it: just a few minutes at a time each day. Each minute spent writing having an immense physical cost as well as being very difficult due to the profound cognitive problems caused by M.E.

If you are a poet, I think this book will inspire you to write. If you love poetry or just love the clever and unusual use of words, I highly recommend Pathogenesis. It's a little gem.

Jodi Bassett (author of the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis website 'A Hummingbirds Guide')