In this Book
- Ruin and Beauty: New and Selected Poems
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: Red Hen Press
summary
Poetry arises from the search for sacred language that describes the awe and mystery of the real world. Deena Metzger is a contemporary poet who has aligned herself with this ancient tradition. This collection, that includes selections from her earlier books of poetry Dark Milk, The Axis Mundi Poems, Looking For the Faces of God, A Sabbath Among the Ruins, and Skin:Shadows/Silence draws on her life’s work, more than forty years of devotion to the word, and aligns itself with such a quest for meaning that has increasing urgency because of the spiritual and political ruins of our time. It is no longer sufficient, she believes, for the poet to be an unacknowledged legislator of the world, for the committed poet is called to engage with full heart in the continuous activity of restoration on behalf of beauty, wisdom, and the natural world. Here we meet the articulate voices of the otherwise silenced, the voices of the animals, the land and the elementals, rain, wind fire and earth, and our responsibility to them. This book combines a searing look at the horrors that we permit, the anguish of human cruelty, brutality, and indulgence, but carrying the fierce determination to live, act, and write on behalf of the soul in all its manifestations. In this collection, despair is acknowledged but not indulged, as Metzger engages in the meticulous task of reconstructing a world, informed by the past and history as language demands, but, extracting ourselves from its violence and caprices, looking toward a viable future and all its unexpected possibilities.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- A Note on Ruin and Beauty
- p. xiii
- Fire Over Wood
- p. 9
- Gacela of Deer and Shovel
- pp. 11-12
- Between the Worlds
- p. 13
- No Words for Rumi
- p. 15
- Calling the Wind
- p. 16
- Bread Offerings
- pp. 17-18
- Pelican Island
- p. 21
- Thirteen Dark Moons
- p. 22
- Moon in Taurus
- p. 29
- Burning the Night
- p. 30
- Breaking Ground
- p. 33
- Raspberries
- p. 45
- Watching Michael Roar
- pp. 47-49
- What Feeds Us
- p. 50
- Hungry Every Morning
- p. 51
- Vows [Song]
- p. 53
- Ruminations
- pp. 55-59
- Oh Great Spirit
- p. 63
- The Buddha of the Beasts
- pp. 65-66
- Bears in the Snow
- p. 68
- At the Summit
- p. 70
- What Shakes Me
- p. 71
- In the Morning Walking
- pp. 78-79
- Opening All the Doors to the Rain
- pp. 80-81
- Vulture Medicine
- pp. 82-84
- Who Lives in the Tree
- pp. 94-95
- Beech/Asherah
- p. 96
- The Old Ones
- p. 98
- Shadow of Fern
- pp. 99-100
- Bird Calls
- p. 105
- Dreaming the Road
- p. 106
- Silence for My Father
- p. 107
- At Kealakekua Bay
- p. 110
- Ice of Hope
- p. 112
- No Roots Are Mine
- p. 113
- Feasting the Dead
- p. 114
- Cathleen Ni Houlihan Burke
- pp. 115-117
- Calling a Mother with Advice for the Duat
- pp. 118-120
- The Death of the Wolf
- pp. 121-122
- When I Am Dying
- p. 123
- Walking with Neruda
- pp. 127-128
- Speaking with Neruda
- p. 129
- Something in the Belly
- pp. 130-131
- Exploring with Neruda
- p. 133
- Pablo Speaks About the Girl
- pp. 134-135
- The Winter of Pablo Neruda
- pp. 136-137
- Burying Our Dead, Pablo Neruda
- pp. 139-140
- Section 8. Hidden Light
- p. 141
- Hidden Light
- pp. 143-144
- Lights Like Stars
- p. 145
- Might There Be a Thousand Words for Light
- pp. 146-148
- Sometimes in Concert with the Gods
- pp. 153-154
- Walking the Creek
- pp. 155-156
- What the Trees Know
- pp. 157-158
- The Bird in the Heart of the Tree
- pp. 159-160
- The Mystery of the Birds
- p. 168
- The Open Hand
- p. 171
- Return to Earth
- p. 173
- Stands Across the Frigid Moon
- pp. 174-175
- Become One with Me
- pp. 176-177
- Einstein, the Lighthouse
- p. 178
- Naming Us by Our Eyes
- pp. 180-184
- Valyermo: Naomi
- p. 201
- Cape Cod: Caitlin
- p. 202
- Cambridge: Joyce
- p. 203
- Provincetown: Barbara
- p. 204
- Provincetown: Jane
- pp. 205-206
- Invocation
- p. 209
- Confirmations
- p. 212
- Wolf Leave Tracks Now
- p. 214
- Griefmaking
- p. 215
- Endarkening
- p. 216
- Iron Horses
- pp. 217-218
- Crimes Against Soft Birds
- pp. 219-221
- Jehovah’s Child
- pp. 222-223
- The Lion of Babylon
- pp. 224-226
- Threnody for Camellias
- p. 229
- The Still Point Turning Away
- pp. 230-231
- Because So Much New Way of Being
- pp. 236-239
- Pelicans in the East
- pp. 240-242
- Pelicans in the Midwest
- pp. 243-244
- When Paradise Is Not
- pp. 245-246
- A Lake in the Mind
- p. 249
- The Burning Bush
- p. 250
- The Cold Sun
- pp. 251-252
- Crazy Old Woman
- p. 253
- The Mouth of the River
- p. 254
- Thus It Is Written
- pp. 260-261
- You Come to Me in Light
- p. 263
- A Love Letter to God
- pp. 264-266
- Ruin and Beauty
- pp. 269-270
- Setting Out
- p. 271
- A Sabbath Among the Ruins
- pp. 274-275
- Not the Hammer
- pp. 276-277
- This Is How I Came to You
- pp. 278-279
- Herons, the Shadows They Cast
- pp. 280-281
- What Could Not Be Said
- p. 283
- Looking for the Faces of God
- pp. 284-286
- A Meeting Place for the Dead
- pp. 287-288
- The Last Word I
- p. 289
- The Last Word II
- p. 290
- The Last Word III
- p. 291
- Ruin and Beauty The End
- pp. 292-293
- Homage To, With Gratitude For
- pp. 297-301
- About the Author
- p. 302
Additional Information
ISBN
9781597093668
Related ISBN(s)
9781597094252
MARC Record
OCLC
835771268
Pages
312
Launched on MUSE
2013-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No