Give Over, Graymalkin

Gaylord Brewer

Publication Year: 2011

From python hunting to Swami Keerti’s laughing meditation, from a death in the family to a burial on the rural acres where he’s stood his ground for a decade, Gaylord Brewer extends and explodes his career-long obsessions in Give Over, Graymalkin. This 8th collection of poems is a journal of loss and recovery, departure and surprising return, fleeting hours in a world diminished yet wondrous. Seas writhe with uncharted beasts. Horsemen gather, conflagrant beneath sword and cross. A daughter mounts a bicycle and a divorcé has the Harley delivered. From India to France to Spain, to the birdsong and day lilies of his unruly garden, Brewer continues as poetic conquistador mapping our longing, melancholy, and joy. With his characteristic wit and compassion, signature sculpted lines, and incantatory vigor, buried metaphors arise, holy days pass, toasts are raised, suns set over the desert of the animate dead. And the weary traveler? He approaches a dark corridor that may or may not be the way home.

Published by: Red Hen Press

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Book Details

Gaylord Brewer’s most recent books are his 8th poetry collection, Give Over, Graymalkin (Red Hen Press, 2011), and the comic novella Octavius the 1st (Red Hen Press, 2008). Earlier books of poetry include Presently a Beast (Coreopsis Books, 1996), Devilfish (Red Hen Press, 1999; winner of the inaugural Benjamin Saltman Poetry Prize), ...

E-ISBN-13: 9781597093408
Print-ISBN-13: 9781597094931
Print-ISBN-10: 1597094935

Page Count: 120
Publication Year: 2011

Edition: First

Give Over, Graymalkin

Title Page, Copyright, Acknowledgments, Dedication

Contents

After

Section I: In the Gaze of Swami Keerti

Come with Me

Jungle Appetites

Do Not

Calling My Mother from India

Swami Keerti Reminds Me that I Am God and Suggests a Bedtime Meditation

Swami Keerti Surprises Me by Using the Word “Bullshit” on Christmas

The Whiskies of Nainital

New Year’s Eve, India

Beginning New Year’s Day with Swami Keerti’s Laughing Meditation

Hunting the Python with Mr. Singh

Section II: Last Days

Everywhere

Three Nights, and One Other

Midnight, December 31, 2006

The Months

Another Good Friday, Good Death

The Bounty of Easter

Lovemaking

Barbaro

Sunday, Night

Section III: South to North

Upon the Third Day Returned to France, at the Old Church on the Hill

To the Wind

After Buying a Rabbit at the Carcassonne Market

Heart’s Warning

A Small, Gone Moment

Jasper

The Walk

Sunday, Another Week of Life Spent

Probably Human

After Twelve Songs for Morning, One for Night (or, Where Were You?)

Last Day

Lost Poem Regarding the Musée d’Orsay, Rescued by Renoir

What the Rain Taught

Fête de l’Indépendance (or, July 4th, Final Evening in France)

Section IV: The Dead Metaphors

Dead Metaphor: Clouds

Dead Metaphor: The Rose

Dead Metaphor: Learning the Bicycle

Dead Metaphor: Sunlight after Morning Thunder

Dead Metaphor: Home

Dead Metaphor: Pregnant Wife

Dead Metaphor: Illness

Dead Metaphor: Fidelity

Dead Metaphor: Infidelity

Dead Metaphor: Bullfighting

Dead Metaphor: Day Lilies

Dead Metaphor: Mosquitoes as Nazis

Dead Metaphor: The Number Thirteen

Dead Metaphor: Post-Divorce Harley-Davidson

Dead Metaphor: The Champagne Toast

Section V: Otra Vez

Hymn of the Flies

For Now, Rise

The Freak of Granada

Occasional

Two Years

Bucket List

Small Mercy

Scalloping

Siesta for the Dying

Ernesto’s 109th Birthday Party

For Beatriz, Belén, and Beatriz María

A History of Flamingos

Reading Ted Hughes on the Beach, Last Day in Spain

The Black Ruby

About the Author

Research Areas

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Ernesto’s 109^th Birthday Party