The Restorers
9780226153476
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The Restorers
The poems in this, W. S. Di Piero’s fifth collection of poetry, are animated by an ancient vision of the human state as existing somewhere between the divine and the bestial; tense with the compulsion toward formal order and the wild yearning after chaos, these are tough poems, gritty and relentless; they indulge neither the reader nor the poet. Their austere lyricism expresses Di Piero’s desire for transcendent meaning, and their unflinching attention to natural and cultural history reflects an equally strong instinct for the earthbound.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
One
The Early Part of the Day
The Faery Child
The Museum of Natural History
Adam’s Garden
The Murphy Bed
Starlings
Poem
Emmaus
Two American Speeches
The Next Room
Anna at Eighteen
Poem
Augustine on the Beach
The Two Old Ladies of September
Saint Francis of Assisi
Two
The Restorers
The Speech in the Middle of the Night
Augustine in His Garden
The Hotel Room Mirror
The Hermit Thrush
An Unwritten Letter to My Daughter
In Calabria
All Saints
The Sicilian Vespers
Gethsemane
Poem
Near Damascus
Dreaming the Pacific
Old Gold
The Caverns
The Original Rhinestone Cowboy
Three Poems
After the Sacrifice
Frankie’s Birthday Party
One
The Early Part of the Day
The Faery Child
The Museum of Natural History
Adam’s Garden
The Murphy Bed
Starlings
Poem
Emmaus
Two American Speeches
The Next Room
Anna at Eighteen
Poem
Augustine on the Beach
The Two Old Ladies of September
Saint Francis of Assisi
Two
The Restorers
The Speech in the Middle of the Night
Augustine in His Garden
The Hotel Room Mirror
The Hermit Thrush
An Unwritten Letter to My Daughter
In Calabria
All Saints
The Sicilian Vespers
Gethsemane
Poem
Near Damascus
Dreaming the Pacific
Old Gold
The Caverns
The Original Rhinestone Cowboy
Three Poems
After the Sacrifice
Frankie’s Birthday Party