Research Catalog

Title

Intruder : poems / Jill Bialosky.

Author

Bialosky, Jill.

Publication

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

79 pages; 23 cm

Summary

"In this haunting, beautiful third collection from Jill Bialosky, the poet examines the intrusion of eros, art, and the imagination on ordinary life. The lover who whispers "Is it still snowing? ... Will you stay with me?" in the first poem reappears throughout the book in different guises - sometimes seemingly real, at other times as muse, doppelganger, or dream. In "The Seduction," as the lovers stand to watch a house fire - "gorgeous, dazzling, I the orange and reds of such ruin" - the poem, like the book itself, becomes a study in the nature of reality, selfhood, and the different levels of consciousness we inhabit. Evoking Penelope and Odysseus and Orpheus and Eurydice, Bialosky asks us to consider the instability of the self and the myriad forms it can take through art, in poems that are sexy, dark, and at once cool and emotional. The creation of the observing mind is paramount here; whether the lover goes or stays, the poems remain. In Intruder - her most mesmerizing gathering of poems yet - Bialosky has captured not only the fleeting truths and pleasures of passion but also its mysterious dangers."--BOOK JACKET.

Note

• "This is a Borzoi book"--T.p. verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-78).

Contents

Demon Lover -- The Seduction -- The Figure -- The Poet Contemplates the Nature of Reality -- Music is Time -- The Poet Contemplates the Nature of Motherhood -- Rules of Contact -- The Poet Contemplates Her Calling -- Cathedral of Wonder -- Myth of Creation -- The Poet Contemplates the Intensity of Emotions -- Intimacies: Portrait of an Artist -- 1. The Seeker -- 2. Adjoining Rooms -- 3. Slumber Party -- 4. Saturday Night -- 5. Family Vacation -- In Contemplation of the Husband -- Anniversary -- Intruder -- Subterfuge -- The End of Love -- The Skiers -- The Poet Contemplates the Sunflowers -- The Poet Discovers the Significance of the Old Manuscripts -- The Poet Contemplates the Wilderness -- The Beauty of the Clearing -- The Poet Returns Home for the Holidays -- The Dream -- Linked by Preverbal Feelings -- The Poet Confronts the Self -- Dreaming of Two Worlds Co-Existing in Harmony -- An Essay in Two Voices -- The Listener -- Touch-Me-Nots -- Lift Your Head, Speak -- Basic Human Need Form -- Snow in April -- The Surfers -- The Dream Life of the Poet.

ISBN

• 9780307268471
• 0307268470

LCCN

• 2008015430
• 40016006547
• 9780307268471

OCLC

• ocn212855056
• 212855056
• SCSB-5439017

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries