Thrift [Paperback]

Barbara Louise Ungar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

Barbara Ungar spares no expense of style or emotion in these taut, charged poems that envision emotion and experience in startling new ways. Ungar pushes boundaries of technique but keeps the reader within her world; Thrift is a compelling reading experience.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Louise Ungar is an Associate Professor of English at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, where she teaches creative writing and literature. She holds degrees from Stanford University, City College and the Graduate Center of CUNY (City University of New York). Barbara lives in upstate New York.

Barbara is the author of a previous poetry chapbook, Sequel. She has won prizes in contests sponsored by The Center for Book Arts, WordTech Editions, By-Line Press, Finishing Line Press, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review and Otter Hook Gallery. She has published poems in many journals, including Salmagundi, The Minnesota Review, and The Cream City Review.

A dynamic and expressive performer, Barbara has read her work widely in New York City and upstate, including the Poetry Society of America, Poets’ House, the Nuyorican Poets’ Café (where she was a slam winner), the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, the Knitting Factory, the Ear Inn, CBGB, the Graduate Center and City College of CUNY, La Mama Galleria, the Dodge Poetry Festival, RPI, Skidmore College, The College of Saint Rose, and the Arts Center of the Capital District.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

As in Dreams You Swim with Whales

You didn’t even know it was endangered, it was so

friendly every snorkelling tourist at the Mauiian
visited the great sea tortoise
in the reef off the hotel beach.

You had to search and search the strange underwater

garden without landmarks
until (your gasp
magnified by snorkel gear)

it slipped out from greygreen coral—

gliding upwards with majestic
slowness and calm,
flapping its legs like wings,

the great turtle rose to the surface

where you dead-man-floated
till you could meet those ancient
netted eyes that seemed scrutable.

You reached out and stroked the satin shell

before, with a flick of its wing
-like legs, it vanished. Next time, it seemed to beckon
you to play, C’mon, swimming slow

enough for you to follow, enchanted,

to its secret lair
where you could frolic with seals and dolphins
as in dreams you swim with whales

until you picked your head up from the water’s pillow

and saw how the tortoise was leading you on and out
into open ocean, far from the curving hotel strip,
the tiny umbrellas. The tide already strong against you

ripping you out. Was this not your friend

but the snake of the sea
wreaking its small revenge on your stupid race?
Seeing how far you would go before you realized you had gone too far.

You didn’t know you weren’t supposed to touch it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 84 pages
• Publisher: WordTech Communications (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932339647
• ISBN-13: 978-1932339642
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #711,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barbara Louise Ungar grew up by Minnehaha Creek in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she began writing poems at six. Her latest poetry book, "Charlotte Brontë, You Ruined My Life," was a 2009 finalist for the National Poetry Series, and a poetry best-seller for Small Press Distribution in April and March of 2011, when it appeared from The Word Works (www.wordworksdc.com). You can read reviews of it at http://rattle.com/blog/2011/03/charlotte-bronte-you-ruined-my-life-by-barbara-louise-ungar/ or http://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/charlotte-bronte-you-ruined-my-life.html or http://rabbitreader.blogspot.com/2011/03/charlotte-bronte-you-ruined-my-life-by.html or http://willnixon.com/divorce/. Her prior book, "The Origin of the Milky Way," won the Gival Press Poetry Award, a silver IPPY, and several other awards, and is reviewed at http://rattle.com/blog/2010/01/the-origin-of-the-milky-way-by-barbara-louise-ungar/. She is also the author of "Thrift" and "Sequel," as well as the monograph "Haiku In English." She is a professor of English at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.