Research Catalog

Title

All we need of hell : poems / by Rika Lesser.

Author

Lesser, Rika.

Publication

Denton, TX : University of North Texas Press, 1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 87 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• Rika Lesser through-composes her books of poems; they are not albums but unities. They are meant to be read in one sitting and can be fearfully intense. In Etruscan Things she followed the circular map of the Etruscan heavens. In All We Need of Hell she seeks to escape the locked boxes of psychiatric wards and medical categorizations. When she succeeds - and she must - it is through art to life.
• These poems will inevitably be compared to those by other poets who have struggled with depressive illnesses. Rarely, however, does a poet address such topics as illness, mental illness, suicide, and death as singlemindedly as Lesser does here.

Subject

• Manic-depressive illness > Poetry
• Women > Psychology > Poetry

Contents

The Room -- A Question of Belief -- For the Record -- Black Stones I -- Black Stones II -- Black Stones III -- The Second Time -- On Lithium: After One Year -- On Lithium: After Two -- Nepenthe -- Other Lives -- Black Stones IV: (First Sight) -- Black Stones V: (From One to Another) -- Black Stones VI: (Falling) -- Escape Attempt -- Shocking Treatment -- A Valediction: Forbidding Moving -- Matthew's Passion -- Black Stones VII: (Others, Can wrestle - ) -- Black Stones VIII: (And were You lost, I would be - ) -- Black Stones IX: (And I, and Silence) -- Black Stones X: (As yet but knock, breathe, shine ...) -- On Lithium: The Third Year -- White Stone -- Black Stones XI: (Flight) -- Love -- Black Stones XII: (Care) -- For Jean -- Life: It Must Suffice Us -- Black Stones XIII: (As light) -- Black Stones XIV: (Past tense) -- On Lithium: Extended Terms -- Departures -- The Other Life -- For a Friend -- For Elisabeth -- September '92: Measures -- Epilogue: Dodsdansen.

ISBN

• 0929398858 (cloth) :
• 0929398920 (pbk.) :

LCCN

94040015

OCLC

• 31610278
• ocm31610278

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries