In this Book

Gone & Gone

Book
Rodney Wittwer
2012
Published by: Red Hen Press
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summary
Gone & Gone takes place at the junctions of desire and despair, memory and mortality. The poems are concerned with the ways in which we try to orient ourselves in an often incomprehensible world—the often contradictory impulses that propel us, the fractious discontent that can stifle us. We attempt to make connections to people, to places, but when does comfort lead to stasis or stagnation? Is transit merely transitory? What is the point of all our "movement" in a world we will most certainly depart? Approaching the desirable but never quite attaining it, the "awful rowing" here is toward balance. Even if the ultimate destination is death (and all the frantic activity in the world can't alter that), we are guided by a capable, discerning voice, or rather, voices, that are channeled, but also absorbed and integrated. There is neither disillusion nor redemption here, just an honest grappling with what being human entails.

Table of Contents

Title Page, Copyright, Acknowledgments, Dedication

Contents

Part I

Holiday

pp. 15

Silly Love Songs

pp. 16

Yes

pp. 17

There Must Be Music or Fear

pp. 18

An Empty House Is the Loudest Music

pp. 19

Isn’t, Isn’t Here

pp. 20

Two Coasts, The Sea Beside

pp. 21-23

Border Reports

pp. 24

We Are Not Like Other People& Do Not Need Them

pp. 25

What You Think of Me

pp. 26

Candidate

pp. 27

Sibling Rivalry

pp. 28-29

Parade

pp. 30

The Answer Man at the Circus

pp. 31

Hungry. Sorry.

pp. 32

New Year’s Eve

pp. 33

Stay

pp. 34-35

Gone & Gone

pp. 36-38

Part II

Symphonie Fantastique

pp. 41-42

What Matters (1984)

pp. 43-45

The Answer Man at the Arena

pp. 46

Drawing the Storm

pp. 47-49

My Father’s Hands Are Warm

pp. 50

The Fear That If You Turn AwayEverything Will Change

pp. 51

The Bad Gene

pp. 52-55

Strong

pp. 56

Part III

Every Week He Wants To Be Better

pp. 59-60

Nothing That Lasts

pp. 61

Children’s Games (After Bruegel)

pp. 62

Confessional

pp. 63

Ventriloquist’s Mark

pp. 64

Lament

pp. 65

Proposal

pp. 66

Sunglasses & Hats

pp. 67

That Same Joke

pp. 68-69

The Body’s Case

pp. 70-71

Not My

pp. 72

In Search of the Sublime

pp. 73

The Answer Man at the Crucifixion

pp. 74

Mother May I

pp. 75-78

About the Poet

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