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Authors: Laura Kasischke

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Poetry, #Regional & Cultural, #United States, #American

Space, in Chains

BOOK: Space, in Chains
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Space, in Chains            

 

 

 

Books by Laura Kasischke   
POETRY
Space, in Chains
Lilies Without
Gardening in the Dark
Dance and Disappear
What It Wasn’t
Fire & Flower
Housekeeping in a Dream
Wild Brides
FICTION
Eden Springs
In a Perfect World
Be Mine
The Life before Her Eyes
White Bird in a Blizzard
Suspicious River
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Feathered
Boy Heaven

LAURA KASISCHKE

Space, in Chains

 

Port Townsend, Washington

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2011 by Laura Kasischke
All rights reserved
Cover art: Mark Rothko,
Number 8,
1952. © 2010 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Copper Canyon Press is in residence at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington, under the auspices of Centrum. Centrum is a gathering place for artists and creative thinkers from around the world, students of all ages and backgrounds, and audiences seeking extraordinary cultural enrichment.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Kasischke, Laura, 1961–
Space, in chains / Laura Kasischke.
p.   cm.
ISBN 978-1-55659-333-8 (pbk.: alk. paper)
I. Title.
PS3561.A6993S63 2011
811´.54-dc22

2010040037

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 FIRST PRINTING
Copper Canyon Press
Post Office Box 271
Port Townsend, Washington 98368
www.coppercanyonpress.org
for Lucy & Jack
Flying swiftly past,
For a child I last forever,
For adults I’m gone too fast…
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the Guggenheim Foundation for a fellowship that supported the completion of this book, as well as United States Artists for a generous USA Cummings Fellowship.
Thank you to the editors of the following publications, in which these poems originally appeared:
The Adirondack Review:
“Stolen shoes”
Boston Review:
“Mercy”
Chautauqua:
“My son makes a gesture my mother used to make”
Conduit:
“Cytoplasm, June”
Dunes Review:
“Dawn,” “Lunch,” “O elegant giant (These difficult matters)”
Field:
“Landscape with one of the earthworm’s ten hearts”
Gulf Coast:
“The key to the tower,” “Your headache”
Harvard Review:
“Abigor”
Hayden’s Ferry Review:
“Space, in chains”
The Iowa Review:
“The call of the one duck flying south,” “Song”
The Kenyon Review:
“At the public pool,” “My beautiful soul”
The Laurel Review:
“Animal, vegetable, mineral, mist”
Luna:
“You”
The Missouri Review:
“My father’s mansion”
Narrative:
“Atoms on loan,” “Life support,” “The photograph album in the junk shop,” “Tools and songs”
New American Writing:
“O elegant giant (And Jehovah)” (Reprinted in
The Pushcart Prize XXXIV)
New England Review:
“Almost there,” “Rain,” “Riddle (I am the mirror),” “Riddle (Most days),” “They say”
New Letters:
“Four Men” “Riddle (Mars, the moon)”
Poetry:
“After Ken Burns,” “Hospital parking lot, April,” “Look”
POOL:
“Recipe for disaster”
Puerto del Sol:
“The Pleasure Center”
Redivider:
“Forgiveness”
Salamander:
“Pharmacy,” “Receipt”
Smartish Pace:
“Dread”
The Southern Review:
“Memory of grief,” “My son practicing the violin,” “Swan logic,” “We watch my father try to put on his shirt”
TriQuarterly:
“Riddle (The bodies of the girls),” “The sweet by-and-by”
Willow Springs:
“Near misses”

 

 

When I came in my son said, “Mother, something has come down from Mars and the world is coming to an end.” I said, “Don’t be silly.” Then my husband said, “It is true.”

 

Bury deep
Pile on stones,
Yet I will
Dig up the bones.
What am I?
CONTENTS

One

O elegant giant
Riddle
Memory of grief
Song
Time
After Ken Burns
My beautiful soul
The photograph album in the junk shop
Landscape with one of the earthworm’s ten hearts
The inner workings
Hospital parking lot, April
View from glass door
July
Wasps
Dawn
Look
Rain
Peace
Pharmacy
Medical dream
Near misses
The key to the tower
Space, in chains
We watch my father try to put on his shirt
The call of the one duck flying south

Two

Your headache
Space, between humans & gods
Swan logic
Riddle
The drinking couple, similes
Your last day
O elegant giant
At the public pool
My son makes a gesture my mother used to make
Recipe for disaster
Atoms on loan
Dread
Wormwood
BOOK: Space, in Chains
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