In this Book
- I: New & Selected Poems
- Book
- 2019
- Published by: University of Pittsburgh Press
- Series: Pitt Poetry Series
summary
Winner, 2020 Frost Medal
Finalist, 2019 National Book Award
Honorable Mention, 2020 BCALA Literary Awards
Toi Derricotte’s story is a hero’s journey—a poet earning her way home, to her own commanding powers. “I”: New and Selected Poems shows the reader both the closeness of the enemy and the poet’s inherent courage, inventiveness, and joy. It is a record of one woman’s response to the repressive and fracturing forces around the subjects of race, class, color, gender, and sexuality. Each poem is an act of victory as the author finds her way through repressive forces to speak with beauty and truth.
This collection features more than thirty new poems as well as selections from five previous collections.
Finalist, 2019 National Book Award
Honorable Mention, 2020 BCALA Literary Awards
Toi Derricotte’s story is a hero’s journey—a poet earning her way home, to her own commanding powers. “I”: New and Selected Poems shows the reader both the closeness of the enemy and the poet’s inherent courage, inventiveness, and joy. It is a record of one woman’s response to the repressive and fracturing forces around the subjects of race, class, color, gender, and sexuality. Each poem is an act of victory as the author finds her way through repressive forces to speak with beauty and truth.
This collection features more than thirty new poems as well as selections from five previous collections.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-vi
- Preface to the New and Selected Poems
- pp. xv-xvi
- Speculations about "I"
- pp. xvii-4
- Among school children
- pp. 9-10
- Blessed angels
- p. 13
- Elegy for my husband
- p. 14
- The enthusiast
- p. 15
- The exchange
- p. 16
- Gifts from the dead
- pp. 17-18
- Glimpse
- I give in to an old desire
- pp. 22-23
- The intimates
- The intimates
- p. 24
- My father in old age
- p. 30
- New Orleans palmetto bug
- 1. False Gods
- pp. 32-33
- The permission
- pp. 37-39
- Sex in old age
- p. 45
- "What are you?"
- pp. 52-56
- The Empress of the Death House
- pp. 57-58
- the story of a very broken lady
- pp. 60-62
- the mirror poems
- pp. 63-68
- new lady godiva
- p. 72
- The Grandmother Poems
- The Empress of the Death House
- pp. 73-74
- The Feeding
- pp. 75-76
- The Funeral Parade
- p. 77
- unburying the bird
- pp. 80-82
- Natural Birth
- pp. 83-84
- Introduction: Writing Natural Birth
- pp. 85-87
- holy cross hospital
- pp. 92-96
- transition
- pp. 104-109
- Blackbottom
- p. 127
- Christmas Eve: My Mother Dressing
- pp. 128-129
- St. Peter Claver
- p. 130
- The Weakness
- pp. 131-132
- Fires in Childhood
- pp. 133-135
- High School
- p. 136
- The Struggle
- p. 138
- Before Making Love
- p. 139
- Squeaky Bed
- p. 142
- The Good Old Dog
- p. 143
- The Promise
- pp. 144-145
- Touching/Not Touching: My Mother
- pp. 147-148
- The Furious Boy
- p. 152
- In an Urban School
- p. 153
- The Polishers of Brass
- p. 154
- Plaid Pants
- p. 156
- Allen Ginsberg
- pp. 158-159
- A Note on My Son's Face
- pp. 162-166
- Exits from Elmina Castle: Cape Coast, Ghana
- The Journey
- p. 173
- Tourists' Lunch
- p. 174
- Beneath Elmina
- p. 175
- Above Elmina
- p. 176
- When My Father Was Beating Me
- pp. 179-180
- Family Secrets
- p. 183
- Invisible Dreams
- pp. 189-192
- Two Poems
- Peripheral
- p. 193
- Dead Baby Speaks
- pp. 198-204
- Not Forgotten
- p. 207
- Grace Paley Reading
- p. 208
- The Undertaker's Daughter
- pp. 211-212
- Preface to The Undertaker's Daughter
- An apology to the reader
- pp. 213-214
- Part I. The Undertaker's Daughter
- pp. 215-216
- The undertaker's daughter
- pp. 237-238
- Sunday afternoon at Claire Carlyle's
- pp. 239-240
- Mistrust of the beloved
- p. 252
- Part II. A Memory of the Future
- pp. 253-254
- I see my father after his death
- pp. 255-257
- My dad & sardines
- pp. 258-259
- The new pet
- p. 260
- The Telly Cycle
- p. 261
- For Telly the fish
- pp. 262-263
- Special ears
- p. 264
- On the reasons I loved Telly the fish
- pp. 267-270
- Because I was good to Telly in his life,
- pp. 271-272
- An apology to Telly the revolutionary
- pp. 273-274
- When I touched her
- p. 283
- Cherry blossoms
- pp. 285-286
- Part III. The Undertaking
- pp. 287-288
- The exigencies of form
- p. 289
- The undertaking
- pp. 290-296
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 297-298
Additional Information
ISBN
9780822986775
Related ISBN(s)
9780822945666, 9780822965831
MARC Record
OCLC
1086209476
Pages
65
Launched on MUSE
2019-03-04
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2019
Project MUSE Mission
Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves.
