In this Book
- In Defense of Nothing: Selected Poems, 1987–2011
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: Wesleyan University Press
- Series: Wesleyan Poetry Program
Runner-up for the William Carlos Williams Award (2015)
Since his celebrated first book of poetry, Peter Gizzi has been hailed as one of the most significant and distinctive voices writing today. Gathered from over five collections, and representing close to twenty-five years of work, the poems in this generous selection strike a dynamic balance of honesty, emotion, intellectual depth and otherworldly resonance—in Gizzi's work, poetry itself becomes a primary ground of human experience. Haunted, vibrant, and saturated with luminous detail, Gizzi's poetry enlists the American vernacular in a magical and complex music. In Defense of Nothing is an immensely valuable introduction to the work of this extraordinary and singular poet. Check for the online reader's companion at http://petergizzi.site.weleyan.edu.
Table of Contents
- From: Periplum, and Other Poems
- Blue Peter
- pp. 6-8
- Thirty Sentences for No One
- pp. 10-11
- Poem for John Wieners
- pp. 12-13
- Despite Your Notices
- pp. 14-15
- Deus Ex Machina
- pp. 17-20
- Song of the Den
- pp. 21-22
- Hard as Ash
- pp. 24-34
- From: Artificial Heart
- New Picnic Time
- pp. 37-39
- Another Day of the Pilgrimage
- pp. 42-46
- Ledger Domain
- pp. 49-54
- Lonely Tylenol
- p. 55
- Fables of Critique
- pp. 70-71
- A Textbook of Chivalry
- pp. 72-74
- From: Some Values of Landscape and Weather
- The Ethics of Dust
- pp. 80-81
- A History of the Lyric
- pp. 82-83
- Some Values of Landscape and Weather
- pp. 85-89
- Overtakelessness
- p. 90
- In Defense of Nothing
- p. 100
- Lessons in Darkness
- pp. 101-103
- It Was Raining in Delft
- p. 104
- Beginning With a Phrase From Simone Weil
- pp. 117-118
- From: The Outernationale
- A Panic That Can Still Come Upon Me
- pp. 121-129
- Untitled Amherst Specter
- p. 135
- A Telescope Protects Its View
- pp. 136-127
- That's Life
- pp. 138-140
- Vincent, Homesick for the Land of Pictures
- pp. 143-149
- Wintry Mix
- pp. 150-151
- Saturday and Its Festooned Potential
- pp. 152-153
- The Moonlight Defense
- p. 154
- Bolshevescent
- p. 155
- The Outernationale
- pp. 156-166
- From: Threshold Songs
- The Growing Edge
- pp. 169-172
- Hypostasis & New Year
- pp. 175-177
- Eye of the Poem
- pp. 178-179
- Snow Globe
- p. 180
- This Trip Around the Sun is Expensive
- pp. 184-185
- Basement Song
- pp. 186-187
- Pinocchio's Gnosis
- pp. 188-193
- Tiny Blast
- p. 194
- Tradition & the Indivisible Talent
- pp. 195-198
- A Note on the Text
- pp. 202-203
- History is Made at Night
- pp. 206-213
- Modern Adventures at Sea
- pp. 216-220
- Fragment (To The Reader)
- p. 221
- Acknowledgements
- p. 222
- Peter Gizzi
- p. 223