Palace Of Bones

Allison Eir Jenks

Publication Year: 2002

Winner of the fifth Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, The Palace of Bones by Allison Eir Jenks is an often stark and startling vision of the way we live, the places we inhabit, and the relics we make to comfort ourselves. Haunted by a quiet, unquenchable longing, Jenks expertly and calmly guides the reader through a vivid dreamscape in this first full-length collection of poems. The Palace of Bones was selected by final judge and Pulitzer Prize-winner Carolyn Kizer. At once dark in its vision and light in its tone, this remarkable book is its authorâ€™s self-confident invitation for us to join her in a world she knows intimately and has made almost familiar if not entirely safe. The Palace of Bones is a stunning debut. from Forgive Usâ€” Leaving the crickets whistling like trains, Dragging their broken legs from under the earth. And what people had thought of you, To forget what they think, you must forget Even more. The midnight hands will come To brush the streetâ€™s old breath, the half- Written letters crumpled like white stars, Chips of stone from the deserted church, And if we are there we will watch the hands, Wishing they were large enough to carry Dead dogs from the park, the lost, the hurt, Carry them to the sea where bones still dance. What others say about this book: â€œEuropeans often accuse us of lacking a tragic sense. I commend to them, and to you, Allison Jenks, in all her subtlety and strength.â€? â€”Carolyn Kizer â€œAllison Eir Jenks is an inordinately, almost indecently gifted poet who must be read.â€? â€”Fred Dâ€™Aguiar Allison Eir Jenks is an assistant professor at North Central College in Naperville, where she teaches creative writing. She received her M.F.A. from the University of Miami, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow.

Published by: Ohio University Press

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I would like to thank the editors of the journals and anthologies in which various poems first appeared: Salmagundi, Willow Springs, Columbia (New York), Michigan Quarterly Review, Massachusetts Review, Kalliope, Poetry Ireland Review, Puerto del Sol, New Orleans Review, Poet Lore, Pleiades, American Literary Review, Many Mountains Moving, Third ...

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