In this Book
- Now, Now
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: University of Pittsburgh Press
- Series: Pitt Poetry Series
summary
In Now, Now, Jennifer Maier's second poetry collection, time is of the essence.
Moving with quantum ease through the porous membranes of the past, present, and future, the speaker wonders: What is each moment but the swirling confluence (or shy first meeting) of past and future—of what happened, and what-has-not-yet-happened but will?
Such phenomenological questions are sparked by ordinary events: a friend's passion for jigsaw puzzles; an imagined conversation with a neighbor's dog; a meditation on the uses of modern poetry. Here, in language at once elegant and agile, intimate and universal, the author probes beneath the surface of happenstance, moving with depth, humor, and compassion into the heart of our shared predicament: that of loving what we cannot keep.
But if time in these poems is relative, it bends toward grace—even, as the title suggests, towards consolation. Taken together, the poems invite us to raise a glass to the way we're each "held light and golden in Time's mouth," and to savor something of the eternal—distilled, sparkling, already lost—inside every now.
Moving with quantum ease through the porous membranes of the past, present, and future, the speaker wonders: What is each moment but the swirling confluence (or shy first meeting) of past and future—of what happened, and what-has-not-yet-happened but will?
Such phenomenological questions are sparked by ordinary events: a friend's passion for jigsaw puzzles; an imagined conversation with a neighbor's dog; a meditation on the uses of modern poetry. Here, in language at once elegant and agile, intimate and universal, the author probes beneath the surface of happenstance, moving with depth, humor, and compassion into the heart of our shared predicament: that of loving what we cannot keep.
But if time in these poems is relative, it bends toward grace—even, as the title suggests, towards consolation. Taken together, the poems invite us to raise a glass to the way we're each "held light and golden in Time's mouth," and to savor something of the eternal—distilled, sparkling, already lost—inside every now.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- One
- Responsible Person
- pp. 8-9
- Paper Roses
- pp. 10-11
- Daphne to Her Father, God of Rivers
- pp. 13-24
- Daydream While Frying Bacon
- pp. 15-16
- Heat and Light
- pp. 19-22
- Two
- New Year’s Eve
- pp. 25-26
- Your Life in Dances
- pp. 27-28
- Cri du Coeur
- pp. 33-44
- The Bridge
- pp. 34-45
- The Man from Eden
- pp. 35-36
- Carried Away
- pp. 39-50
- Aubade for Dave, the Electrician
- pp. 40-42
- Three
- Homeland Security
- pp. 45-47
- Sharing a Bath
- pp. 52-53
- Hoop Skirts Recalled
- pp. 54-55
- Rummage Sale
- pp. 56-67
- Haute Couture
- pp. 57-68
- A True Story
- pp. 60-61
- A Little Dream of You
- pp. 62-64
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 65-77
- Back Cover
- p. 78
Additional Information
ISBN
9780822979159
Related ISBN(s)
9780822962632
MARC Record
OCLC
867739659
Pages
75
Launched on MUSE
2013-12-13
Language
English
Open Access
No