In this Book
- The Law of Falling Bodies: Poems
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: University of Arkansas Press
summary
The hard center of The Law of Falling Bodies bears down on the twin enmities of pain and loss. But the book ranges over a broad field, with poems covering everything from the inundations of summer rain ("It's like living in the spit valve of a big trombone") to a lovesick drunk listening to Patsy Cline ("My drink's on the rocks, and I am, too.") Glaser begins with the quirks and revelations of nature, shifts to those difficult adjustments we make as the body breaks down, modulates to a series of scenes imbued with music, and ends on an elegiac note in memory of his late wife ("Grief follows me like a dog behind the butcher's truck"). Along the way, the poems touch on a restless scale of tones, as light as the indignant comedy of "It Ain't the Heat, It's the Stupidity" and as heartbreakingly dark as "Autopsy." At the core is the constant interplay of an agile mind and rich language--what Ezra Pound called "the dance of the intellect among words"--always feeling out what it is to be human. The Law of Falling Bodies is part of the University of Arkansas Press Poetry series, edited by Enid Shomer.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. vii-viii
- Squall Lines
- pp. 4-5
- Sunbreak in the Poconos
- pp. 6-7
- In the Season of Early Dark
- pp. 11-12
- Little Ice Age
- p. 13
- After the Harvest, before the Snow
- pp. 14-16
- Withdrawal Symptoms
- p. 21
- Drinking Alone on a Spring Day
- pp. 23-24
- Turn and Return
- pp. 27-28
- Under the Knife
- p. 31
- Cuttings from Recovery
- pp. 32-34
- Song with One Lung
- pp. 35-36
- Second Slice
- pp. 37-38
- Exit Strategy
- pp. 39-40
- Lumbar Complaints
- p. 46
- Over and Out
- p. 47
- Indelible Ink
- pp. 48-49
- Closing In
- p. 50
- Sixty without a Crutch
- pp. 51-52
- The Blind One
- p. 55
- At the Casino with Justice
- pp. 57-59
- Girl down on the Farm
- pp. 60-61
- Boy in the Lull of Midsummer
- pp. 62-63
- Thanksgiving in New Orleans, 2005
- pp. 69-70
- Outlaw Blues
- pp. 71-72
- Bottoming Out
- p. 74
- Less than Greek
- p. 78
- Gin and Music
- p. 80
- Trashing the Shadows
- p. 82
- Book of the Broken Spine
- pp. 83-84
- Empty Ever After
- p. 86
- Missing the Missing
- pp. 87-88
- Dernier Cri
- p. 89
- To the Nth
- p. 90
- Experimental Requiem
- p. 91
- All Too Human
- pp. 92-93
- Simple Gifts
- p. 95
- Back Cover
- p. 97
Additional Information
ISBN
9781610755139
Related ISBN(s)
9781557289964
MARC Record
OCLC
872122427
Pages
108
Launched on MUSE
2014-03-10
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2013