Pallbearers Envying The One Who Rides (Book, 1999) [WorldCat.org] Pallbearers Envying The One Who Rides

Genre/Form:	Poetry
Additional Physical Format:	Online version: Dobyns, Stephen, 1941- Pallbearers envying the one who rides. New York : Penguin Books, 1999 (OCoLC)606423368
Document Type:	Book
All Authors / Contributors:	Find more information about:
ISBN:	0140589163 9780140589160
OCLC Number:	40783907
Description:	ix, 149 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Contents:	Good Deeds -- The Himalayas Within Him -- Old What's-His-Name -- Like a Revolving Door -- Facing Failure -- Goodbye To The Hands That Have Touched Him -- The New Austerity -- Ready And Waiting -- The Nature Of Love -- Valentine Mathematics -- Love Is Elsewhere -- Black Stitches Down The Middle -- Trouble In Mind -- Why Fool Around? -- What Good Is Love Unless It's Aggressive? -- The Dark And Turbulent Sea -- Fighting Back -- Great Job -- One Good Turn Deserves Another -- What Next? -- Can Poetry Matter? -- Flawed Language: Thought's Shadow -- Lumberjack Shirts And Motorcycle Boots -- I'm Muscle, I'm Brawn -- Adrift In The Leafy Tranquillity -- To Conceal The Piercing Light -- Occupant In Permanent Transit -- To Sleep The Sleep Of The Just -- Wounds Without Pain -- Thus He Endured -- Oh, Immobility, Death's Vast Associate -- No Tangos Tonight -- The Malditos Make A Racket -- To Exist In The Given Minute -- Logo Of Fixed Bewilderment -- The World's Master Plan -- To Blow Your Enemy A Final Kiss -- Corn To Pound To Make His Bread -- Scattered Oaks In Full Leaf -- The Light Is Dusky, The Shadows Long -- Let's Peek At The Dental Work -- Between Them Rose The Boner Of Contention -- God's Poorer Particle, i.e., The Devil -- That Stuff About A Better Place -- The Sorry Fronds Of The Palm Trees -- His Favorite Blue Cup -- Why Is He Suddenly Paralyzed? -- It's Not The Hookers Or Opium Dens -- The Ersatz Metaphysic Of Commercialism -- Dog-Tired Cannon Fodder Won't Salute -- Until We Drool And Piss Ourselves -- Hunting Dogs Pursue The Wounded Deer -- The Minute Grit In Death's Undergarments -- MacFleckna's Storefront Church -- Their Tete-A-Tete Is Done -- Death Lobs A Bosom Into The Field -- Daytona Fresh And Indianapolis Immaculate -- When Tubes Pierce Every Extremity -- The Morgue Attendants Clutch Their Keys -- Last Jumping Jacks -- The World's Sidewalks And Daily Hoopla.
Series Title:
Responsibility:	Stephen Dobyns.

Abstract:

Consider the mysteries of the heart, that blood-pumping organ and, in Stephen Dobyns' latest collection of poems, the hapless romantic of our interior landscape. "The Himalayas Within Him" finds Heart worrying about the sound of his own heartbeat, wondering why it doesn't "blare like a quartet of trombones" as it reflects his "ardent complexity." In "Goodbye to the Hands That Have Touched Him" Heart, after suffering many sleepless nights, decides "that love exists at the root of his problems. Without love his path would be as smooth as a plate of glass and he'd sleep like a kitten." Dividing the Heart poems is the long "Oh, Immobility, Death's Vast Associate, " a jazzy disquisition on human isolation and inaction in the midst of a planet full of people feeling similarly. Throughout Pallbearers Envying the One Who Rides Dobyns has painstakingly sculpted straight-forward language into a distinct sound, creating an unforgettable collection of poems that offers readers unexpected revelations about the complexities of the heart.