| Talking Dirty to the Gods: Poems Contributor(s): Komunyakaa, Yusef (Author) |
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ISBN: 0374527938 ISBN-13: 9780374527938 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux OUR PRICE: $14.40 Product Type: Paperback Published: September 2001 Annotation: A daredevil poetic achievement nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award . . . A god isn't worth A drop of water in the hell of his good Imagination, if we can't curse Sunsets & threaten to forsake him In his storehouse of belladonna, Tiger hornets, & snakebites. --from "Meditations in a Swine Yard" No turn in any life cycle is taboo as Yusef Komunyakaa examines the primal rituals shared by insects, animals, human beings, and deities in "Talking Dirty to the Gods," From "Hearsay" to "Heresy," these 132 poems, each consisting of four quatrains, are framed by innuendo and lively satire. Komunyakaa looks to nature and configures his own paradigm, in which an event as commonplace as the jewel wasp laying an egg in a cockroach becomes every bit as grand as Zeus's infidelity. The formally rigorous collection is itself a design for a systematic cosmos, a world compressed but abundant in surprise and delight. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | American - African American |
| Dewey: 811.54 |
| Physical Information: 0.43" H x 5.3" W x 7.76" (0.39 lbs) 144 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A daredevil poetic achievement from a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Yusef Komunyakaa's Talking Dirty to the Gods was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award . . . A god isn't worthA drop of water in the hell of his good Imagination, if we can't curse Sunsets & threaten to forsake him In his storehouse of belladonna, Tiger hornets, & snakebites. --from Meditations in a Swine Yard No turn in any life cycle is taboo as Yusef Komunyakaa examines the primal rituals shared by insects, animals, human beings, and deities in Talking Dirty to the Gods. From Hearsay to Heresy, these 132 poems, each consisting of four quatrains, are framed by innuendo and lively satire. Komunyakaa looks to nature and configures his own paradigm, in which an event as commonplace as the jewel wasp laying an egg in a cockroach becomes every bit as grand as Zeus's infidelity. The formally rigorous collection is itself a design for a systematic cosmos, a world compressed but abundant in surprise and delight. |
Contributor Bio(s): Komunyakaa, Yusef: - Yusef Komunyakaa's books of poems include Warhorses (FSG, 2008), Taboo (FSG, 2004), and Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. He teaches at New York University.
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