MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 02773cam a2200349 i 4500
001 2015011215
003 DLC
005 20151216080353.0
008 150330t20152015nyu 000 p eng
010 $a 2015011215
020 $a9780374147839 (hardcover)
040 $aDLC$beng$cDLC$erda
042 $apcc
050 00 $aPS3561.O455$bA6 2015
082 00 $a811/.54$223
084 $aPOE005050$aPOE000000$2bisacsh
100 1 $aKomunyakaa, Yusef,$eauthor.
240 10 $aPoems.$kSelections
245 14 $aThe emperor of water clocks :$bpoems /$cYusef Komunyakaa.
250 $aFirst edition.
264 1 $aNew York :$bFarrar, Straus and Giroux,$c2015.
264 4 $c©2015
300 $a113 pages ;$c22 cm
336 $atext$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$2rdacarrier
500 $a"Winner of Pulitzer Prize".
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (page 113).
520 $a"The wildly enchanting new collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa "If I am not Ulysses, I am / his dear, ruthless half-brother." So announces Yusef Komunyakaa early in his lush new collection, The Emperor of Water Clocks. But Ulysses (or his half brother) is but one of the beguiling guises Komunyakaa dons over the course of this densely lyrical book. Here his speaker observes a doomed court jester; here he is with Napoleon, as the emperor "tells the doctor to cut out his heart / & send it to the empress, Marie-Louise"; here he is at the circus, observing as "The strong man presses six hundred pounds, / his muscles flexed for the woman / whose T-shirt says, these guns are loaded"; and here is just a man, placing "a few red anemones / & a sheaf of wheat" on Mahmoud Darwish's grave, reflecting on why "I'd rather die a poet / than a warrior." Through these mutations and migrations and permutations and peregrinations there are constants: Komunyakaa's jazz-inflected rhythms; his effortlessly surreal images; his celebration of natural beauty and of love. There is also his insistent inquiry into the structures and struggles of power: not only of, say, king against jester but of man against his own desire and of the present against the pernicious influence of the past. Another brilliant collection from the man David Wojahn has called one of our "most significant and individual voices," The Emperor of Water Clocks delights, challenges, and satisfies"--$cProvided by publisher.
520 $a"The new collection from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, featuring his signature jazz-like phrasing and insistent inquiry into the structures and struggles of power"--$cProvided by publisher.
650 7 $aPOETRY / American / African American.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aPOETRY / General.$2bisacsh