In this Book
- Never the Whole Story: poems
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Michigan State University Press
Epiphanic and rich with striking imagery, Anita Skeen’s new collection of poetry documents the fragmentary nature of life and celebrates the desire to make a meaningful narrative from momentary experience. In Never the Whole Story, the past is never past, and the present comes filled with the miracle of small gestures—singular moments that have the power to transport the mind from one geographic place to the next, one emotional world to another. Memory is incomplete, events unfold from multiple perspectives, and secrets unspool from the ordinary. Following in the tradition of James Wright, Maxine Kumin, Mary Oliver, Jane Kenyon, Robert Hass, and other writers whose work is grounded in the detail of ordinary life, Never the Whole Story will be a welcome addition to the libraries of those who turn to literature to find deeper connections between their own lives and the natural world.
Table of Contents
- I Love to Tell the Story
- Never the Whole Story
- pp. 3-4
- In the Time of Flags
- pp. 7-8
- Regarding Skunks
- pp. 9-11
- Ghost House
- pp. 12-14
- Remembering My Father, Struggling
- pp. 15-16
- My Cousin Writes a Letter
- pp. 20-21
- Button Bag
- pp. 22-23
- Stalking the Old Neighborhood
- pp. 24-25
- Acquisitions
- pp. 26-28
- Seductions
- pp. 29-32
- Friday Night Singing at Husky Branch
- pp. 33-35
- For the Beauty of the Earth
- What the Seed Knows
- pp. 39-40
- Bird Watching
- pp. 41-43
- The Clover Tree
- pp. 44-45
- Zebra Moon
- p. 48
- Waiting for Snow
- pp. 49-50
- Dances on Glaciers
- pp. 51-52
- Cat, Bird, Woman
- pp. 53-55
- The Picking Season
- pp. 56-58
- Return of the Bison
- pp. 60-61
- Stopping by Road on a Summer Morning
- pp. 62-63
- Psalm Twenty-Three
- pp. 64-65
- Vocabulary Night
- pp. 66-67
- Love Lifted Me
- No Apostrophe Needed
- pp. 72-73
- Sleeping with Rilke
- pp. 74-75
- How Bodies Fit
- p. 76
- Among the Boats
- pp. 78-79
- Woman with Something to Say
- pp. 80-81
- On Vicki’s Porch
- pp. 82-83
- At the Winery
- pp. 84-86
- In Praise of Forgetfulness
- pp. 87-88
- School Physiology Exam: 1880
- pp. 89-91
- Eleven Months Later
- p. 92
- But Not Forgiving Myself
- pp. 95-96
- Let the Lower Lights Be Burning
- From the Lighthouse
- pp. 99-100
- Cause and Effect
- p. 101
- Oklahoma Family Portrait, 1928
- pp. 102-103
- The Visitor
- p. 104
- Losing My Hands
- pp. 105-107
- The Building Trades
- pp. 108-109
- Double Valentine
- pp. 110-111
- Father and Daughter at the Nursing Home
- pp. 112-113
- The Return
- pp. 114-115
- Psalm for Anne
- pp. 116-118
- Girls Crossing Over
- pp. 119-120
- Trouble in the House
- pp. 121-123
- A Matter of Perspective
- pp. 124-125
- Sweet Hour of Prayer
- House of the Rising Sun
- pp. 133-134
- In the Garden
- p. 135
- Three Part Harmony
- pp. 138-139
- This Time in Virginia
- p. 140
- Her Granddaughter, in Church
- pp. 141-142
- Particle or Wave
- p. 143
- Elegy for Wings
- p. 144
- Of All the Gifts, It Was the Music
- pp. 145-146
- Water Aerobics, YWCA, Easter Sunday
- pp. 147-148
- About Darkness and Light
- pp. 149-150
- Sunday Worship
- pp. 151-152
Additional Information
Copyright
2011