In this Book
- To See the Earth Before the End of the World
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Wesleyan University Press
- Series: Wesleyan Poetry Program
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Winner of the Voelcker Award (PEN America) (2016)
In To See the Earth Before the End of the World Ed Roberson presents us with 120 new poems, each speaking in his unique voice and seen through his unique eye. Earth and sky, neighborhood life and ancient myths, the art of seeing and the architecture of the imagination are all among the subjects of these poems. Recurring images and ideas construct a complex picture of our world, ourselves, and the manifold connections tying them together. The poems raise large questions about the natural world and our place in it, and they do not flinch from facing up to those questions.
Roberson's poems range widely through different scales of time and space, invoking along the way history and myth, galaxies and garbage trucks, teapots and the history of photography, mating cranes and Chicago's political machine. This collection is composed of five sequences, each developing a particular constellation of images and ideas related to the vision of the whole. Various journeys become one journey—an epic journey, invoking epic themes. There are songs of creation, pictures of the sorrows of war, celebrations of human labor and human society, a respect for tools and domestic utensils that are well made, the deep background of the past tingeing the colors of the present, and the tragic tones of endings and laments, a pervading awareness of the tears in things. Most of all, there is the exhilaration of a grand, sweeping vision that enlarges our world.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page
- p. iii
- PART I - TOPOI
- 1. MORNING
- pp. 4-6
- 2. DEEP TIME
- p. 7
- 3. PLANETARIUM
- p. 8
- 4. LUNAR ECLIPSE
- pp. 9-10
- 6. MANY LOCATIONS
- p. 13
- 7. THE $$-MEN
- p. 14
- 9. OLD DEPENDENCY
- pp. 16-17
- 11. WHAT WORD
- pp. 19-21
- PART II - THE WORLD, THEN
- ABOUT WHAT’S THIS
- p. 25
- The world then
- p. 26
- Facing up to
- p. 27
- He wore his glasses
- p. 30
- The wall stores
- p. 31
- help / answered with
- p. 34
- Distance works
- p. 45
- spiral galaxies
- p. 46
- A swaying path
- p. 48
- Stopped against
- p. 51
- A lamp’s fingers
- p. 54
- Its 93 million miles
- p. 55
- Inside our moment
- p. 56
- PART III - CHROMATIC SEQUENCES
- 10 Architectural Drawing
- pp. 75-76
- 13 the list of if
- p. 80
- PROFIT FULFILLED
- p. 81
- PART IV - PLAYGROUND AND PARKS DEPARTMENT MUSIC
- EGG GATHERERS
- p. 85
- NOTHING NEW
- p. 88
- NEW WORLD ORCHESTRA
- p. 89
- SIGHT READ ON A COUPLE STARS
- pp. 98-99
- (“Ring! . . .”)
- p. 100
- TRANSIT AUTHORITY
- pp. 101-102
- NINE CHICAGO POEMS
- pp. 103-113
- FLOCK LIFE
- p. 114
- RELATIVE TIME
- p. 116
- ALL AT ONCE
- p. 118
- CENTRIPETAL FORCE
- p. 120
- ON THE SPARROW: NO BLAME
- p. 121
- PLAYGROUND AND PARKS DEPARTMENT MUSIC
- pp. 123-124
- PART V - OF THE EARTH
- A LOW BANK OF CLOUD
- pp. 127-128
- OF THE EARTH
- p. 130
- SONG TO ANUBIS
- p. 131
- THE HEAVENS
- pp. 135-136
- THE ORIGINAL DEED
- p. 137
- TRIBAL TAG
- p. 140
- BOY GOD QUETZALCOATL WATER SHAPE STOOD
- pp. 141-142
- LAST OF THE BUSH BATHS
- p. 145
- FEAST OF THE MISSING
- p. 147
- IMPONDERABLE THIRST
- p. 148
- FLIGHT RECORD
- pp. 150-151
- AT THE TOP OF THE CHAIN
- pp. 152-153
- THE BIRD THAT WALKS ON LILY PADS
- pp. 154-155
- EARTHENWARE
- p. 156
- A SLIM VOLUME TAKEN INTO THE PROVINCES
- pp. 158-159
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- p. 163
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