In this Book
- The Black Bear Inside Me
- Book
- 2018
- Published by: University of Pittsburgh Press
- Series: Pitt Poetry Series
summary
Becker celebrates the interconnectedness of creatures and places—never losing sight that much will turn out precarious, illusory, provisional. These poems speak, in ardent voices, about our affinities: an articulate, black bear mourns habitat loss; a frail man and failing dog become one; a scientist and her African grey parrot research language acquisition for thirty years. Ecologies interlace, as when a troubled family “sacrifices one member,/ as plants surrender leaves in times of drought.” Becker responds with rage and wit to corporate excess and intractable geo-politics. Love and friendship empower in wry narratives, though time “mows” down our days, though we may never escape “original cruelties.” Tragedies permeating our enmeshed, global identities haunt the book: the massacre of gay youth in Orlando; the terrors facing Cambodian teenagers working fishing boats. Wise, capacious, by turns unsettling and joyous, The Black Bear Inside Me incorporates histories and losses into a luminous present.
Table of Contents
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- Part I
- Bluefish, 1970
- p. 9
- Coppice and Pollard
- pp. 10-12
- Yankee Barn Sale
- pp. 13-14
- Reading Music
- p. 15
- Scottish Melodies
- p. 16
- Hearing the News
- pp. 17-18
- Whitetail Spring
- p. 19
- The Black Bear Inside Me
- pp. 20-22
- Part II
- Alex, an Obituary
- p. 26
- Hummingbird
- p. 27
- The Collection of the Canter
- pp. 28-29
- True Blue Communications Man
- pp. 30-31
- Security Clearance
- pp. 34-35
- The Wages of Sin
- p. 36
- At the Memorial
- p. 39
- On the Grand Canal
- p. 40
- Provisional Ode
- pp. 41-42
- Part III
- Men as Friends
- p. 45
- The Broker
- p. 47
- Taken into Account
- p. 49
- Make It Plain
- p. 53
- Words with Friends
- p. 56
- Acknowledgments
- p. 61
Additional Information
ISBN
9780822983279
Related ISBN(s)
9780822965244
MARC Record
OCLC
1061503038
Pages
69
Launched on MUSE
2018-11-20
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2018