In this Book
- Faster Than Light: New and Selected Poems, 1996-2011
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Louisiana State University Press
Conjuring numerous voices and characters across oceans and centuries, Faster Than Light explores widely disparate experiences through the lens of traditional poetic forms. This volume contains a selection of Marilyn Nelson's new and uncollected poems as well as work from each of her lyric histories of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century African American individuals and communities.
Poems include the stories of historical figures like Emmett Till, the fourteen-year-old boy lynched in 1955, and the inhabitants of Seneca Village, an African American community razed in 1857 for the creation of Central Park. "Bivouac in a Storm" tells the story of a group of young soldiers, later known as the Tuskegee Airmen, as they trained near Biloxi, Mississippi, "marching in summer heat / thick as blackstrap molasses, under trees / haunted by whippings." Later pieces range from the poet's travels in Africa, Europe, and Polynesia, to poems written in collaboration with Father Jacques de Foiard Brown, a former Benedictine monk and the subject of Nelson's playful fictional fantasy sequence, "Adventure-Monk!" Both personal and historical, these poems remain grounded in everyday details but reach toward spiritual and moral truths.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. 2-9
- I. LYRIC HISTORIES
- A Wreath for Emmett Till
- pp. 3-9
- PESTILENCE
- p. 11
- A VOYAGE BY SEA
- p. 12
- KEEPER OF THE KEYS
- pp. 13-14
- FAT ON THE FIRE
- p. 15
- COWS IN THE SHADE
- p. 17
- SAP RISING
- p. 18
- FARM GARDEN
- p. 19
- THE FREEDOM BUSINESS
- p. 20
- ON ABRIGADOR HILL
- pp. 21-22
- DINAH’S LAMENT
- p. 23
- NOT MY BONES
- pp. 24-25
- THE COTILLION
- p. 29
- WORDS AND WHISPERS
- pp. 32-33
- LITTLE BOX
- p. 34
- MIRACLE IN THE COLLECTION PLATE
- pp. 35-36
- SISTERS OF CHARITY
- p. 37
- UNCLE EPIPHANY
- p. 38
- THE TAO OF THE TRIAL
- p. 41
- ALBERT HINKLEY
- p. 44
- WATKINS LAUNDRY AND APOTHECARY
- pp. 46-47
- CAFETERIA FOOD
- p. 50
- CHEMISTRY 101
- p. 53
- BEDSIDE READING
- pp. 55-56
- POULTRY HUSBANDRY
- pp. 57-58
- VEIL-RAISERS
- p. 61
- HOW A DREAM DIES
- pp. 62-63
- RUELLIA NOCTIFLORA
- pp. 65-66
- HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS
- p. 68
- “GOD’S LITTLE WORKSHOP”
- pp. 69-70
- MINERALOGY
- pp. 72-73
- MOTON FIELD
- p. 75
- BUGLE CALL RAG
- p. 76
- JUMP, JUMP, JUMP
- p. 78
- RED-HOT MAMA
- p. 80
- THAT MAN OF MINE
- p. 81
- IMPROVISATION, 1948
- p. 82
- DRUM SOLO, 1950
- p. 83
- THE SONG IS YOU
- p. 84
- II. OTHER SELECTED POEMS
- FASTER THAN LIGHT
- pp. 87-91
- CACHOEIRA TALES
- pp. 92-112
- TRIOLETS FOR TRIOLET
- pp. 113-116
- III. NEW AND UNCOLLECTED POEMS
- MILLIE-CHRISTINE
- pp. 119-125
- A SMALL GOOD NEWS
- p. 126
- FIRST ALZHEIMER’S SONNET
- p. 128
- THE TRUCELESS WARS
- p. 130
- TO THE CONFEDERATE DEAD
- pp. 132-134
- BIVOUAC IN A STORM
- pp. 135-136
- SIX-MINUTE DOGFIGHT
- p. 137
- WRITTEN IN CLOUDS
- p. 138
- HONOR GUARD
- p. 139
- ETERNAL OPTIMIST
- p. 140
- PSALM FOR ANOTHER PEOPLE
- p. 141
- NINE TIMES NINE, ON AWE
- pp. 142-144
- IN THE WAITING ROOM
- pp. 145-147
- THE MOHEMBO ROAD
- pp. 148-151
- FOR THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI
- pp. 152-153
- HOW TO BE HUMAN NOW
- pp. 154-158
- FROM “ADVENTURE-MONK!”
- pp. 159-162