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by: Catherine Barnett
List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $12.38 You Save: $1.57 (11%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.6
EAN: 9781882295456
ISBN: 1882295455
Label: Alice James Books
Manufacturer: Alice James Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 80
Publication Date: May 01, 2004
Publisher: Alice James Books
Sales Rank: 776820
Studio: Alice James Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The family response to the sudden deaths of the speaker's two young nieces is at the center of Catherine Barnett's award-winning first collection. This series of elegies records the transit of grief, observing with an unflinching eye how a singular traumatic event can permanently alter our understanding of time, danger, the material world and family. Marked by clarity and restraint, these lyric poems narrate a suspenseful, wrenching story that explores the depths and limits of empathy.
'Living Room Altar'
Except for the shirt pulled from the ocean,
except for her hands, which keep folding the shirt,
except for her body, which once held their bodies,
my sister wants everything back now-
If there were a god who could out of empty shells
carried by waves to shore
make amends-
If the ocean saved in a jar
could keep from turning to salt-
She's hearing things:
bird calling to bird,
cat outside the door,
thorn of the blackberry against the trellis.
'These heart-breaking poems of an all-too-human life stay as absolute as the determined craft which made them. There is finally neither irony nor simple despair in what they record. Rather, it is the far deeper response of witness, of recognizing what must be acknowledged and of having the courage and the care to say so.' -Robert Creeley
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - One of the best books I've read in years....
I rarely review books on Amazon or take part in discussion threads some reviews tend to generate, but I wanted very much to say a few encouraging words regarding Catherine Barnett's book that might help get it into more and more people's hands. I have no intention of writing anything resembling an undergraduate English paper here because I believe it is one of the best and most powerful 5 books of poetry published in the last 5 years -- and it might be my favorite; I don't know. When you enjoy ... Read More
Rating:  - Beautiful Yet Devastating
There is something haunting about this book. I had no impression going into this book of poems, especially since I had no clue what the title might be reaching for. I was pleasantly surprised as I read these poems dealing w/ various angles of a tragedy. Barnett is very talented in finding different ways to speak about one event.
Of all the poems Nits is by far my favorite and eventually, I did figure out the title :)
Definitely worth the read and impressive for a young poet.
Rating: - Took the top of my head off
This is simply one of the most beautiful books of poetry I've read in a very long time. Its subject matter, the death of two young girls in a plane crash, would render almost anyone mute, yet Barnett has found a way to speak of the ineffable here, and to make something beautiful out of despair. The style is appropriately, exquisitely restrained, and yet there is a poignancy in the deep silences of these poems. Do yourself a favor: buy this book, and when it arrives turn off the tv, close the paper, ... Read More
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