In this Book
- Elegy On Toy Piano
- Book
- 2005
- Published by: University of Pittsburgh Press
- Series: Pitt Poetry Series
In Elegy on Toy Piano, Dean Young's sixth book of poems, elegiac necessity finds itself next to goofy celebration. Daffy Duck enters the Valley of the Eternals. Faulkner and bell-bottoms cling to beauty's evanescence.
Even in single poems, Young's tone and style vary. No one feeling or idea takes precedence over another, and their simultaneity is frequently revealed; sadness may throw a squirrelly shadow, joy can find itself dressed in mourning black. As in the agitated "Whirlpool Suite": "Pain / and pleasure are two signals carried / over one phoneline."
In taking up subjects as slight as the examination of a signature or a true/false test, and as pressing as the death of friends, Young's poems embrace the duplicity of feeling, the malleability of perception, and the truth telling of wordplay.
Table of Contents
- Thrown as if Fierce & Wild
- pp. 3-12
- Evening Primrose
- pp. 4-13
- Avalanche Garden
- pp. 6-15
- Original Monkey
- pp. 7-8
- Ghost Gash
- pp. 9-18
- Multi-Tasking
- pp. 11-12
- Lives of the Olympians
- pp. 13-22
- Halflives of Youngonium
- pp. 14-15
- Fire Is Speaking
- pp. 16-17
- Lives of the Veterans
- pp. 18-19
- Little Black Squirrel
- pp. 20-29
- Hammock Half in Sun
- pp. 21-30
- May Deaths
- pp. 22-31
- Ghost Gust
- pp. 23-26
- With Hidden Noise
- pp. 27-28
- Skipping the Reception
- pp. 33-42
- Lives of the Robots
- pp. 34-35
- Ghost Grease
- pp. 36-37
- Alarm Clock
- pp. 38-47
- Learn by Doing
- pp. 40-41
- True/False
- pp. 42-44
- Bolinas, California
- pp. 45-54
- Peach Farm
- pp. 46-55
- What’s Wrong with this Picture
- pp. 50-51
- Lives of the Mortals
- pp. 54-58
- Whoz Side U On, Anyway?
- pp. 59-60
- Shield of Moon Dust
- pp. 61-62
- Tongue Doctor
- pp. 63-64
- Rabbit, I Love You
- pp. 65-66
- Whirlpool Suite
- pp. 67-68
- Is This Mic On?
- pp. 69-70
- Lemon Garlic Duck
- pp. 71-73
- I Said Yes I Meant No
- pp. 74-75
- Bathed in Dust and Ash
- pp. 76-85
- Gray Matter
- pp. 79-88
- Bivouacked & Garrisoned Capitol
- pp. 82-83
- Elegy on Toy Piano
- pp. 84-85
- Last Words
- pp. 86-87
- Rushing through the Night
- pp. 88-90
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 91-101
- About the Author, Back Cover
- pp. 102-103