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    Address
    Address
    Address
    Ebook68 pages17 minutes

    Address

    By Elizabeth Willis

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    About this ebook

    Winner of the Laurence L. Thomas Winship / PEN New England Award (2012)

    Address draws us into visible and invisible architectures, into acts of intimate and public address. These poems are concentrated, polyvocal, and sharply attentive to acts of representation; they take personally their politics and in the process reveal something about the way civic structures inhabit the imagination. Poisonous plants, witches, anthems, bees—beneath their surface, we glimpse the fragility of our founding, republican aspirations and witness a disintegrating landscape artfully transformed. If a poem can serve as a kind of astrolabe, measuring distances both cosmic and immediate, temporal and physical, it does so by imaginative, nonlinear means. Here, past and present engage in acts of mutual interrogation and critique, and within this dynamic Willis's poetry is at once complexly authoritative and searching: "so begins our legislation."

    Check for the online reader's companion at http://address.site.wesleyan.edu.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWesleyan University Press
    Release dateJan 1, 2012
    ISBN9780819570994
    Address

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      Book preview

      Address - Elizabeth Willis

      ADDRESS

      I is to they

      as river is to barge

      as convert to picket line

      sinker to steamer

      The sun belongs to I

      once, for an instant

      The window belongs to you

      leaning on the afternoon

      They are to you

      as the suffocating disappointment

      of the mall

      is to the magic rustle

      of the word come

      Turn left toward the mountain

      Go straight until you see

      the boat in the driveway

      A little warmer, a little stickier

      a little more like spring

      TAKE THIS POEM

      Take this spoon

      from me, this

      cudgel, this axe

      Take this bowl

      this kettle, this

      continental plate

      Take, if you will,

      this shallow topsoil

      above my bedrock

      This swingset

      above the topsoil

      this raven

      from my hair

      Take your fear

      from its closet

      Take this shirt

      in need of washing

      this unread book

      Take this child

      this husband, this

      teacup, this

      provisional weather

      Take this pill

      with a tall glass

      of water, take this

      bus deep into

      the interior

      Take my wife

      even if I meant

      to keep her

      Take my share

      I don’t need it

      Take as long

      as you need to

      Take this line

      between breathing

      and voting

      Take this city

      Take that expensive

      ship across this

      cellophane model

      of the sea

      Take the F train

      but not to Brooklyn

      Take the case

      of the missing cufflinks

      Take this beverage

      with its silver

      Pullman ice

      Take me with you

      as far as you can go

      I won’t cause

      any trouble

      Take this office

      overlooking the people

      Take this patience

      and burn it to the ground

      Take down your

      vanities, your hippodrome

      your champagne

      pyramid

      Take down your hair

      your curtains, your

      razorwire fence

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