Advice from the lights : poems / Stephen Burt.

Author
Burt, Stephanie, 1971- [Browse]
Uniform title
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, [2017]
  • ©2017
Description
106 pages ; 23 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks PS3552.U7695 A6 2017 Browse related items Request

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    Summary note
    "Stephen is sometimes Stephanie and sometimes wonders how his past and her past are their own collective memory. Advice from the Lights is a brilliant and candid exploration of gender and identity and a series of looks at a formative past. It's part nostalgia, part confusion, and part an ongoing wondering: How do any of us achieve adulthood? And why would we want to, if we had the choice? This collection is woven from and interrupted by extraordinary sequences, including Stephanie poems about Stephen's female self; poems on particular years of the poet's early life, each with its own memories, desires, insecurities, and pop songs; and versions of poems by the Greek poet Callimachus, whose present-day incarnation worries (who doesn't?) about mortality, the favor of the gods, and the career of Taylor Swift. The collection also includes poems on politics, location, and parenthood. Taken all together, this is Stephen Burt's most personal and most accomplished collection, an essential work that asks who we are, how we become ourselves, and why we make art"-- Page [4] of cover.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references.
    Contents
    • Contents : Ice for the Ice Trade
    • My 1979
    • Hermit Crab
    • Princess Stephanie
    • A covered bridge in Littleton, New Hampshire
    • My 1980
    • Over Sacramento
    • Kites
    • Swans at a pond by JFK Airport
    • To the naked mole rats at the National Zoo
    • My 1981
    • Inside outside Stephanie
    • Scarlet, a Betta
    • Roly-Poly bug
    • After Callimachus (So reactionaries...)
    • Palinode with Playmobil Figurines
    • My 1982
    • Fifth Grade time capsule
    • Cloud studies
    • My 1983
    • Black raspberry canes
    • First kiss Stephanie
    • Taboos at twelve
    • Esprit Stephanie
    • After Callimachus (Half of me...)
    • The Cars' greatest hits
    • Mean girls
    • My 1985
    • Fairy story Stephanie
    • Herring gull
    • Electrical Flora
    • My 1986
    • Water strider
    • Gymnastics Stephanie
    • Cicadas
    • My 1987
    • School smoking lounge Stephanie
    • Palinode with study guide, spackling knife, and sewing kit
    • After Callimachus (Why do I write?)
    • Sadder
    • A nickel on top of a penny
    • Advice from the lights
    • Anubis
    • Paper Stephanie
    • Helium
    • A crime at Pattaya
    • The sun rising
    • Royal botanical
    • Pastorale
    • Advice or prayer for airports
    • Indian Stream Republic
    • Écossaise
    • Spoken for a pair of ferrets
    • After Callimachus (It's hard work...)
    • Tierra Stephanie
    • Secondhand flashlight
    • Creative writing
    • Final exam Stephanie
    • Advice for holding together
    • Tourmalines
    • Washingtonian
    • Advice from Rock Creek Park
    • Suspense
    • December 2016
    • Resolved
    • Fuzzy Golem doll with 6" keychain
    • Concord grapes
    • White Lobelia
    • Notes
    • Acknowledgments.
    ISBN
    • 9781555977894 ((paperback))
    • 1555977898 ((paperback))
    LCCN
    2017930116
    OCLC
    965730495
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