Apology for want

102 Pages·1997·0.29 MB·English

by  Mary Jo Bang

Apology for Want Middlebury/Bread Loaf
title:
Book
author: Bang, Mary Jo.
publisher: University Press of New England
isbn10 | asin: 0874518229
print isbn13: 9780874518221
ebook isbn13: 9780585275673
language: English
subject American poetry.
publication date: 1997
lcc: PS3552.A4A84 1997eb
ddc: 811/.54
subject: American poetry.
Page i
Apology for Want
Page ii
The Bakeless Literary Publication Prizes are sponsored by the Bread
Loaf Writers' Conference of Middlebury College to support the
publication of first books. The manuscripts are selected through an
open competition and are published by University Press of New
England/Middlebury College Press.
1996 Competition Winners
Poetry
Mary Jo Bang, Apology for Want
: Edward Hirsch
JUDGE
Fiction
Katherine L. Hester, Eggs for Young America
: Francine Prose
JUDGE
Page iii
Apology for Want
Mary Jo Bang
Page iv
Middlebury College Press
Published by University Press of New England, Hanover, NH 03755
© 1997 by Mary Jo Bang
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2
CIP data appear at the end of the book
Acknowledgments:
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors of the following
publications: Colorado Review: "Nonesuch," "In This Business of
Touch and Be Touched," ''Reign of Unreason"; Denver Quarterly:
"The Oracle"; The Gettysburg Review: "Renunciation of Dreams and
Such"; Indiana Review: "How to Leave a Prairie"; The Journal:
"Where Snow Falls," "Real Time"; The Nation: "Gretel," "Waking in
Antibes," "Pilgrimage"; New American Writing: "What Was Seen,"
"The Desert on Hand"; The Paris Review: "& There He Kept Her
Very Well," "Electra Dreams," "If Wishes Were Horses," "No
Talking"; Partisan Review: "Chicago"; Salmagundi: "From a New
Place"; Shenandoah: "Elegy"; Southwest Review: "Granite City,
Montana"; and Witness: "Café Edgar." "Where Snow Falls" was
reprinted in the 1995/1996 Anthology of Magazine Verse Yearbook of
American Poetry.
Thanks to the many who read and commented on these poems.
Especially to Lucie Brock-Broido. And Timothy Donnelly. And
forever to Edward Hirsch.
"Pilgrimage" is dedicated to Karen Kreutzinger.
"A Goddess Shakes Spring Awake" is for Timothy Donnelly.
"Like Spiders, Step by Step" is for Kymberly Taylor.
"How to Leave a Prairie" is for Susan Lee Smith.
"From a New Place" is for Catherine Sherer.
"Twilight Amnesia" is for Gary R. Bang, Jr.
Page v
for Michael and Rusty
and Gary
Page vii
CONTENTS
I
Waking in Antibes 3
The Desert on Hand 5
Pilgrimage 6
Real Time 8
The Oracle 9
Granite City, Montana 10
Apology for Want 11
Chicago 12
Elegy 13
Gretel 14
A Screen Door Slams 16
In Order Not to Be Eten Nor All to Torne 18
II
The First Room Is a Woman 21
Open Heart Surgery 23
In This Business of Touch and Be Touched 24
Putting Down a Cat 26
A Goddess Shakes Spring Awake 27
The Clairvoyant 28
The Elements of Style 29
What Is Red 30
Page viii
In St. John's Hospital 31
Autopsy 32
Where Snow Falls 33
III
If Wishes Were Horses 37
Electra Dreams 38
The Crossing 39
The Holy Grail 40
Persephone Leaving 41
Behind This Passion 43
What Was Seen 44
Metaphor as Symptom of Reason's Despair 45
Nonesuch 46
The Fall 47
No Talking 49
IV
Slow Dancer 53
Ashes 54
Like Spiders, Step by Step 55
& There He Kept Her, Very Well 56
Renunciation of Dreams and Such 57