In this Book
- Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: Wesleyan University Press
- Series: Wesleyan Poetry Program
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summary
Best known for Neon Vernacular, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1994, and for Dien Cai Dau, a collection of poems chronicling his experiences as a journalist in Vietnam, Yusef Komunyakaa has become one of America's most compelling poets. Pleasure Dome gathers the poems in these two distinguished books and five others—over two and a half decades of Komunyakaa's work. In addition, Pleasure Dome includes 25 early, uncollected poems and a rich selection of 18 new poems.
Table of Contents
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- New Poems
- Providence
- pp. 3-4
- The Whispering Gallery
- pp. 6-7
- Doppelgängers
- pp. 8-9
- Never Land
- pp. 11-12
- South Carolina Morning
- pp. 13-14
- Rendezvous
- pp. 14-17
- Once the Dream Begins
- pp. 17-18
- Keeper of the Vigil
- pp. 21-22
- Double Limbo
- pp. 25-26
- NJ Transit
- pp. 26-28
- Early Uncollected
- Langston Hughes
- p. 31
- Blue Tonality
- p. 32
- De Síntoma Profundo
- p. 32
- Reminiscence
- pp. 33-34
- The Lamp Carrier
- pp. 34-35
- A House of Snow
- p. 36
- Recital of Water Over Stones
- pp. 36-37
- The Dog’s Theology
- p. 37
- They Say in Yellow Jacket
- pp. 37-38
- Birthday Song
- pp. 38-39
- Eye Witness
- pp. 39-40
- Unnatural Deaths
- p. 40
- A Different Story
- pp. 40-41
- One-Breath Song
- p. 41
- Frontal Lobe Postscript
- pp. 41-42
- Insinuations
- p. 43
- Loneliness
- pp. 43-44
- Dedications & Other Darkhorses
- Chair Gallows
- pp. 47-48
- Under House Arrest
- p. 49
- Translating Footsteps
- pp. 49-50
- Urban Renewal
- pp. 50-51
- The Tongue Is
- p. 52
- Ten Speeds
- pp. 52-53
- Observatory
- p. 54
- Lost in the Bonewheel Factory
- Floor Plans
- pp. 57-58
- Tour Guide
- p. 58
- Confessing My Ignorance
- pp. 60-61
- Stepfather: A Girl’s Song
- pp. 62-63
- High on Sadness
- pp. 64-65
- Apprenticeship
- p. 66
- Light on the Subject
- pp. 66-67
- Punchdrunk
- p. 67
- Nothing to Do with Janice Drake
- pp. 68-69
- Reconstructing a Crime
- pp. 69-70
- Death Threat Note
- p. 72
- Child Stealer
- pp. 72-73
- A Poet Whose Photo Never Grows Old
- pp. 73-74
- Imagination
- p. 75
- Ghost Chant, et alii
- pp. 76-77
- The Dog Act
- pp. 79-80
- The Nazi Doll
- p. 82
- Breaking Camp
- pp. 82-83
- Corrigenda
- pp. 83-84
- Copacetic
- False Leads
- p. 87
- Soliloquy: Man Talking to a Mirror
- pp. 87-88
- Reflections
- p. 90
- Faith Healer
- pp. 91-92
- More Girl Than Boy
- p. 92
- April Fools’ Day
- pp. 93-94
- Untitled Blues
- pp. 94-95
- Jumping Bad Blues
- p. 95
- Initials on Aspens
- p. 96
- Family Tree
- pp. 96-98
- Safe Subjects
- pp. 104-105
- Black String of Days
- pp. 105-106
- Eleemosynary
- pp. 106-107
- Speaking of Luck
- pp. 107-108
- Villon/Leadbelly
- p. 108
- Borinken Blues
- p. 109
- Elegy for Thelonious
- pp. 110-111
- Copacetic Mingus
- pp. 111-112
- Letter to Bob Kaufman
- pp. 112-113
- Woman, I Got the Blues
- pp. 113-114
- Street Cool Clara
- pp. 114-115
- Newport Beach, 1979
- p. 115
- Gloria’s Clues
- pp. 115-116
- The Cage Walker
- pp. 118-119
- Epilogue to the Opera of Dead on Arrival
- pp. 119-120
- The Leper’s Bell
- p. 122
- Blues Chant Hoodoo Revival
- pp. 122-126
- Toys in a Field
- Nothing Big
- p. 129
- Water Buffalo
- pp. 130-131
- Monsoon Season
- pp. 131-132
- Le Xuan, Beautiful Spring
- pp. 132-133
- Toys in a Field
- p. 133
- Returning (1975)
- pp. 135-136
- I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head
- Touch-up Man
- pp. 141-142
- How I See Things
- pp. 142-143
- Insufficient Blue
- pp. 143-144
- The Thorn Merchant
- pp. 144-145
- The Thorn Merchant’s Right-Hand Man
- pp. 145-146
- Happy-Go-Lucky’s Wolf Skull Dream Mask
- pp. 146-147
- The Heart’s Graveyard Shift
- pp. 147-148
- Boy Wearing a Dead Man’s Clothes
- pp. 149-151
- Gift Horse
- pp. 151-152
- The Music That Hurts
- pp. 152-153
- When in Rome—Apologia
- pp. 153-154
- The Thorn Merchant’s Wife
- pp. 154-155
- The Thorn Merchant’s Mistress
- pp. 155-156
- Somewhere Else
- pp. 156-157
- After Summer Fell Apart
- pp. 157-158
- Uncertainty in Blue
- pp. 158-159
- The Brain to the Heart
- p. 160
- The Falling-Down Song
- p. 161
- The Thorn Merchant’s Son
- p. 163
- I Apologize
- pp. 163-164
- Dreambook Bestiary
- pp. 168-170
- Two Cranial Murals
- p. 171
- Landscape for the Disappeared
- pp. 172-173
- Articulation & Class
- p. 174
- In the Background of Silence
- pp. 176-177
- Cinderella at Big Sur
- pp. 177-178
- Born Pretty in a Poor Country
- pp. 177-178
- For the Walking Dead
- p. 181
- Child’s Play
- pp. 182-183
- Raw Data for an Unfinished Questionnaire
- pp. 183-184
- The Beast & Burden: Seven Improvisations
- pp. 184-188
- Dien Cai Dau
- Camouflaging the Chimera
- pp. 191-192
- Somewhere Near Phu Bai
- pp. 193-194
- Starlight Scope Myopia
- pp. 194-195
- Red Pagoda
- pp. 195-196
- A Greenness Taller Than Gods
- pp. 196-197
- The Dead at Quang Tri
- p. 197
- Hanoi Hannah
- p. 198
- “You and I Are Disappearing”
- pp. 200-201
- 2527th Birthday of the Buddha
- pp. 201-202
- Re-creating the Scene
- pp. 202-203
- One More Loss to Count
- pp. 204-205
- Nude Pictures
- pp. 206-207
- We Never Know
- p. 207
- A Break from the Bush
- p. 208
- Seeing in the Dark
- p. 209
- Tu Do Street
- pp. 209-210
- Communiqué
- pp. 211-212
- Donut Dollies
- pp. 213-214
- Jungle Surrender
- pp. 216-217
- Eyeball Television
- pp. 217-218
- The One-legged Stool
- pp. 218-220
- Short-timer’s Calendar
- pp. 220-221
- To Have Danced with Death
- pp. 222-223
- Report from the Skull’s Diorama
- pp. 223-224
- Combat Pay for Jody
- pp. 225-226
- Sunset Threnody
- pp. 226-227
- After the Fall
- pp. 227-228
- Saigon Bar Girls, 1975
- pp. 228-229
- Boat People
- pp. 229-230
- Bui Doi, Dust of Life
- pp. 230-231
- Missing in Action
- pp. 231-232
- Between Days
- pp. 233-234
- February in Sydney
- Under the Harbour Bridge
- p. 239
- Rocks Push
- pp. 241-242
- When Loneliness Is a Man
- pp. 244-245
- A Quality of Light
- p. 245
- Gerry’s Jazz
- pp. 246-247
- Boxing Day
- pp. 247-248
- A Delicate Conspiracy
- p. 250
- Frank’s Poem
- pp. 251-252
- February in Sydney
- p. 254
- Magic City
- Venus’s-flytraps
- pp. 257-258
- The Whistle
- pp. 258-261
- Playthings
- pp. 261-264
- Yellow Dog Café
- pp. 265-266
- Seasons Between Yes & No
- pp. 267-268
- April’s Anarchy
- pp. 269-270
- The Millpond
- pp. 270-272
- Banking Potatoes
- p. 274
- The Smokehouse
- pp. 274-275
- The Steel Plate
- pp. 275-276
- Sunday Afternoons
- pp. 277-278
- Looking for Choctaw
- pp. 278-279
- Fleshing-out the Season
- pp. 279-280
- Blackberries
- pp. 280-281
- Yellowjackets
- p. 281
- History Lessons
- pp. 282-284
- Temples of Smoke
- p. 284
- Boys in Dresses
- pp. 285-286
- Nude Tango
- pp. 286-287
- Halloween, the Late Fifties
- pp. 290-291
- Mismatched Shoes
- p. 292
- My Father’s Love Letters
- p. 293
- The Cooling Board
- p. 294
- Believing in Iron
- p. 296
- Between Angels & Monsters
- pp. 298-299
- Poetics of Paperwood
- pp. 299-300
- Slam, Dunk, & Hook
- pp. 300-301
- Sex, Magnolias, & Speed
- pp. 301-302
- Butterfly-toed Shoes
- pp. 304-306
- Neon Vernacular
- Fog Galleon; At the Screen Door
- pp. 309-311
- Praising Dark Places
- pp. 317-318
- A Good Memory
- pp. 318-327
- Birds on a Powerline
- p. 328
- Little Man Around the House
- pp. 332-333
- Songs for My Father
- pp. 333-340
- Thieves of Paradise
- Memory Cave
- pp. 343-344
- Out There There Be Dragons
- pp. 344-345
- The Song Thief
- pp. 345-346
- Ode to a Drum
- pp. 347-348
- Eclogue at Daybreak
- pp. 348-349
- Confluence
- pp. 352-353
- Palimpsest
- pp. 354-364
- Mumble Peg
- pp. 364-365
- Ia Drang Valley
- pp. 365-366
- The Trapper’s Bride; Eclogue at Twilight
- pp. 367-369
- Heroes of Waterloo
- p. 370
- Wokanmagulli
- pp. 371-372
- New Gold Mountain
- pp. 373-374
- White Lady
- pp. 374-375
- Meditations on a Dingo
- pp. 375-376
- Report from the Lucky Country
- pp. 376-377
- In the Mirror
- p. 377
- The Piccolo
- pp. 378-379
- Corners of Night
- pp. 380-381
- Visitation
- p. 382
- Bennelong’s Blues
- pp. 383-384
- Quatrains for Ishi
- pp. 384-388
- The Glass Ark
- pp. 388-393
- Nude Interrogation
- p. 393
- The Poplars
- p. 394
- Phantasmagoria
- pp. 395-399
- A Summer Night in Hanoi
- pp. 399-400
- A Reed Boat
- p. 400
- Buried Light
- p. 401
- The Hanoi Market
- pp. 401-402
- Frontispiece
- p. 403
- Ghost Video
- pp. 405-406
- Phantom Limbs
- p. 406
- Dream Animal
- p. 407
- Blessing the Animals
- pp. 418-419
- Rhythm Method
- pp. 420-421
- The Parrot Asylum
- pp. 421-422
- The Thorn Merchant’s Daughter
- pp. 422-423
- The Monkey House
- pp. 423-424
- Dolphy’s Aviary
- pp. 424-425
- No-Good Blues
- pp. 427-430
- What Counts
- pp. 432-433
- Index of Titles and First Lines
- pp. 437-445
Additional Information
ISBN
9780819574725
Related ISBN(s)
9780819564252, 9780819567390
MARC Record
OCLC
869281841
Pages
468
Launched on MUSE
2015-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Purchase
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