Conjure
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About this ebook
A Pulitzer prize-winning poet “offers a glimpse into her visionary world in her stunning 16th collection. . . . [D]eeply insightful.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
Like magic, these succinct poems reveal multiple realities
Rae Armantrout has always taken pleasure in uncertainties and conundrums, the tricky nuances of language and feeling. In Conjure that pleasure is matched by dread; fascination meets fear as the poet considers the emergence of new life (twin granddaughters) into an increasingly toxic world: the Amazon smolders, children are caged or die crossing rivers and oceans, and weddings make convenient targets for drone strikes. These poems explore the restless border between self and non-self and ask us to look with new eyes at what we're doing.
“In this volume, Armantrout addresses topics familiar from her earlier work: the nature of consciousness, aging, the looming ecological crisis, the vacuousness of much of what passes for public discourse.” ―Simon Collings, StrideMagazine
“Conjure offers a magic of its own, with sometimes sly and always unforgettable juxtapositions of the minute and the exceptional, elevated by the intellect, flair, and confidence of a poet at the top of her game.” ―Mandana Chaffa, Ploughshares
“Unsettling, slippery intimations move just below the surface of Rae Armantrout’s enigmatic and unforgettable new collection of poems. For the record, Rae Armantrout is my favourite living poet.” ―Nick Cave
Rae Armantrout
RAE ARMANTROUT has published eighteen books of poetry including Versed, which received a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and was a finalist for a National Book Award; Finalists; Conjure; Wobble (finalist for a National Book Award); Partly: New and Selected Poems; Itself; Just Saying; and Money Shot. Armantrout is Professor Emerita of Writing at the University of California at San Diego. She has been published in many anthologies, including, The Oxford Book of American Poetry, and Scribner's Best American Poetry, and in such magazines as, Harpers, The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Scientific American, Chicago Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review.
Read more from Rae Armantrout
Versed Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finalists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVersed Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conjure Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Money Shot Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Itself Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wobble Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Partly: New and Selected Poems, 2001–2015 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Go Figure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Book preview
Conjure - Rae Armantrout
CONJURE
How did the synthesis
cross the abyss?
In a sentimental story
there is only one
of something:
one newborn,
one moment, one
once,
embalmed
in myrrh.
All I want
is not to be
first on one side,
then the other,
but to conjure
a stream
of sounds and images
for which I am not
responsible.
and maneuver within it—
mouth and tail
one thought.
The sea, now full
of cannibal
jellies, blue
if the sky says so
UNQUOTE
Take this cup away from me
with its hints
of ammonia and dill,
oak or corrosion.
Who knows, really?
What might ammonia taste like
to a different person?
Roll that question
around on your tongue.
You’ve heard it before
or something like it.
The familiar is enormous!
Red-shifted.
I’m happy to think
of this deep sleep—
the sleep of the dead
—
as a guilty pleasure
I
am
getting away
with
PINOCCHIO
Strand. String.
In this dream,
the paths cross
and cross again.
They are spelling
a real boy
out of repetition.
Each one
is the one
real boy.
Each knows
he must be
wrong
about this, but
he can’t feel
how
The fish
and the fisherman,
the pilot,
the princess,
the fireman and
the ones on fire
TOUCHED
More than a fistful
of stubby green fingers
pushing up through gravel.
And blades, hearts, clubs
cut fine figures too.
Each shape particular
and pushy.
Each a would-be
template,
I say.
Pick me.
I’m with the deranged.
Something’s very wrong.
There are masks
in offices.
Machines run the banks
and the power company.
If you aren’t my mother
or my