Upper Level Disturbances

By Kevin Goodan

Publication Year: 2012

“Kevin Goodan’s poems embody a quiet, incandescent fierceness, fueled by loss, but still able to seek and find a place to dwell, despite the upper level disturbances he encounters in the disappearance of rivers, the uncertainty of—and fissures in—language, the elusiveness of a god, and the diminishment of rural America. These poems are raw and hyper-honest in their regard of a world in which ‘every moment is a landscape / We enter, depart, at the same time.’ ” —Christopher Arigo, author of Lit Interim and In the Archives; “In Kevin Goodan’s Upper Level Disturbances, we are given the ‘whispered home to the lightning’ where ‘the levees sing of snake-grass burning.’ With a steady hand, Goodan unfurls the line into the rough and jagged physicality of the world until the sublime transcends its earthly frame. These are hard-earned poems, brought back to us from a difficult land. They are ‘prayers . . . adorned with rivets of fire’ within which the ‘laws of nature / Determine all the grief one eye can hold.’ Upper Level Disturbances is one helluva good book, and I recommend it highly. ” —Brian Turner, author of Here, Bullet, and Phantom Noise

Published by: Center for Literary Publishing

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Book Details

E-ISBN-13: 9781885635266
E-ISBN-10: 1885635265
Print-ISBN-13: 9781885635204
Print-ISBN-10: 1885635206

Page Count: 64
Publication Year: 2012

Series Title: Mountain West Poetry Series
Series Editor Byline: Stephanie G'Schwind and Donald Revell, Series Editors

Upper Level Disturbances

Cover

Contents

COME TAKE THESE WORDS FROM ME

A SIGH FOR AVILA

WHAT INDICES HAVE BLURRED ME

SHOWINGS

WE PASS AND THEY PASS AND SLOW THE WORLD ABIDES

AUGUST SINGULARITY

LOOKING FOR MY FATHER: CHRISTOPHER SMART, JOHN CLARE

RECOVERY

OUT OF BRIGHTNESS HAILSTONES, COALS OF FIRE

THUS I AM CALLED, THRESHER TO THE FIELDS

TOUCHING HOME

REMEMBERING THE FAMILY HOMESTEAD, WHICH IS NOW AN INDUSTRIAL PARK

HOW THE SOIL DAMPENS FOR THE LOSS OF THEE

UNTITLED

SHE CALLED YOUR NAME OVER AND OVER THEN DIED THEY SAID

IN THE LEXICON OF RAIN

SOFT, AS WHEN A BODY STRUCK

AS I SET MERTON BACK INTO THE FIRE

SACERDOTES DOMINI

A MAN ENTERS THE ROOM HE HAS FORGOTTEN

ALBUM

UNTITLED

SUMMER’S ORNAMENT

SEPTEMBER

PATIENCE

VISITATION AT THE ASHFORD MOTEL

UNTITLED

TRYING TO REMEMBER

THE FLAME-FRONT I MAINTAIN IS FOR THIS TINDER ONLY

DO MY BELLS RING HOURLY IN THE WHITE AIR THAT SURROUNDS YOU?

UNTITLED

SOMETHING IS ALWAYS SAYING HELLO

NOW

LAST MOTH BEFORE WINTER

LISTENING TO ARVO PÄRT’S FÜR ALINA

Acknowledgments

Research Areas

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