Oblivio Gate

Acknowledgments

o` 8Zbefnc\[^d\ekj Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors of the following publications, in which these poems previously appeared, some in slightly different form: The Alsop Review—“September, North Fullerton Avenue” (under the title “Memory”) Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts—“Alzheimer’s” Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts—“Fainting at My Grandfather’s Funeral” DMQ Review—“The Incident” 2 Opus—“Wildfire Triptych, “Hinged Double Sonnet for the Luna Moths,” “Wisdom,” and “Elegy” 42 Opus—“Wildfire Triptych” The Gettysburg Review—“Solomon’s Palimpsest” Journal of the American Medical Association—“Losing Solomon” The Ledge—“Walking Bees” North American Review—“Hippocampus” and “The Carpenter Bee” LOCUSPOINT—“Montclair Vespers,” “Solomon’s Tool Shed,” “Working and Singing,” “Heart of the Tyrant King,” and “The Other Dream in Which He Is Weightless” RUNES: A Review of Poetry—“Oblivio Gate” Pistola—“Self-Portraits from the Widow House,” “Self-Portrait as Tithonus,” and “Self-Portrait as Aurora” “Losing Solomon” was featured on Verse Daily and also appeared in the anthology Family Matters: Poems of our Families (Bottom Dog Press, 2006). “Hinged Double Sonnet for the Luna Moths” was chosen for inclusion in the Poetry Everywhere project, a series of short films featuring animated interpretations of contemporary poetry, created by the Poetry Foundation in collaboration with the Creative Writing and Film Department of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. o`` o`` “Again, the Gnome and I Catch Dawn” and “Losing Solomon” was reprinted in Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease edited by Holly Hughes (Kent State University Press, 2008). Reproduced by permission. “Sundowning” won the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry selected by finalist judge Robert Pinsky. “September, North Fullerton Avenue” (under the title “Memory”) won the Alsop Review Poetry Competition. In the poem Working and Singing, the lyric from “Wake Up Little Susie” was written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. Copyright ©1957 by House of Bryant Publications / Sony / ATV Music Publishing. Renewed 1985. All rights reserved. Used by permission. The epigraph for section 3 was written by Yosano Tekkan and is reprinted from Modern Japanese Tanka, edited and translated by Makoto Ueda. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher. I would like to thank Margo Stever, Ann Lauinger, and the Huson Valley Writers’ Center, who published my chapbook, A House That Falls, winner of the Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Prize, in which several of these poems appear. I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts for their support in the form of a Literature Fellowship in Poetry; the good people at the Arizona Commission on the Arts for their support in the form of a Creative Writing Fellowship and an Artist Project Grant; the ASU Faculty Emeriti Association for the PFF Fellowship; and the Eastern Frontier Education Foundation (Norton Island Residency Program) and the Vermont Studio Center for providing residency fellowships and space. The generosity of these organizations allowed time to write many of these poems. o``` In the writing of Oblivio Gate, I consulted a number of sources for inspiration, and from which phrases and ideas were occasionally referenced. For information about the brain and Alzheimer’s disease, I relied on The Forgetting, Alzheimer’s: Portrait of an Epidemic by David Shenk, In Search of Memory by Eric R. Kandell, and Losing My Mind by Thomas DeBaggio. Deepest gratitude to Norman Dubie, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, and Alberto Rios, for their wisdom, support, and friendship during the making of this book and beyond. A sincere thank you to Jon Tribble, Lynne McMahon, SIU Press and Crab Orchard Review for helping this book into the world. I am also indebted to the following friends and mentors for their advice, support, and encouragement: Karla Elling, Gary Short, Wesley McNair, Kimiko Hahn, Liam Callanan, Todd Fredson, Sarah Vap, Nancy Weber, Marianne Botos, George Held, Miguel Murphy, Cynthia Hogue, Jorn Ake, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Kevin Vaughnbrubaker, Peggy Shumaker, Chad Unrein, Casey Charles, Ron Smith, Josh Rathkamp, the ASU diaspora, my friends, my students, and the village. Thanks also to the Young Writers Program and the Office of Youth Preparation, And finally, a special thank you to Jennifer, who believed me every time I finished this book. ...