Mission Work
Poems
1st
Published
April 28, 2008
by
Mariner Books
in
New York, NY
.
Written in English.
About the Book
In this prize-winning collection, a debut poet evokes his childhood as the son of missionaries in Papua New Guinea.
Mission Work is an arresting collection of poems based on Aaron Baker’s experiences as a child of missionaries living among the Kuman people in the remote Chimbu Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Rich with Christian and Kuman myths and stories, the poems explore Western and tribal ways of looking at the world -- an interface of vastly different cultures and notions of spirituality, illuminated by the poet’s own struggles as he comes of age in this unique environment.
The images conjured in Mission Work are viscerally stirring: native people slaughter pigs for a Chimbu wedding ceremony; a papery flight of cicadas cuts through a cloud forest; hands sting as they beat a drum made of dried snakeskin. Quieter moments are shot through with the unfamiliar as well. In “Bird of Paradise,” a father angles his son’s head toward the canopy of the jungle so the boy can catch sight of an elusive bird.
Edition Notes
Series |
Winner of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prize |
Classifications
Dewey Decimal Class |
811.6--dc22 |
Library of Congress |
PS3602.A583M57 2008 |
The Physical Object
Format |
Paperback |
Number of pages |
64 |
Dimensions |
8.8 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches |
Read
No readable version available.
Borrow
Physical copy, local WorldCat
History Created April 30, 2008 · 8 revisions
| April 25, 2011 | Edited by OCLC Bot | Added OCLC numbers. |
| August 17, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
| May 10, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the edition. |
| April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
| April 30, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Inital record created, from an amazon.com record. |