Whirling Backward Into the World: Poems"These fifty-two poems," Michael Scofield says, "are fictionalized attempts to accept my existence in the world. They range from dealing with outrage over our lust to make war through regret at botched relationships, to love for Noreen, my wife of eighteen years, to the renewal of energy that comes from listening to the music of J.S. Bach, to the underlying belief that a higher power loves me. Nonsense poems appear throughout the book because nonsense is often all I can make of what seems reality." A graduate of Yale University, Michael Scofield received his M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College in 2002. Afternoons, he teaches creative-writing skills individually to half a dozen students. The author of two chapbooks and an earlier book of poems, "Silicon Valley Escapee," he also has published books on topics as diverse as bird-watching and furniture upholstering. Before moving to Santa Fe in 1995, his wife and he ran a high-tech marketing-communications business from their home in Palo Alto, California. |
Contents
| 13 | |
BEGGING HIS DOPPELGANGER | 19 |
Report from the Interior | 25 |
Soaring | 32 |
Tonight Nothing Works | 38 |
Overpopulation | 47 |
Why the Army Assigned Me a Psychiatrist | 54 |
Seeing My Father | 60 |
Last Gasp | 66 |
Life Force | 72 |
Emergency Plumbing Illustrated | 79 |
Okay Cry But Dont Forget Your Fiber | 86 |
Whirling has Worked for the Sufis Since 1273 | 92 |
Draftees | 98 |
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almond cakes arms Army Assigned aspirin Bach's bayonet Begging His Doppelganger belly black-and-white blue Bottle Buju Castor Oil cheeks Clara cold crack Cryotransport daughter Deena Different Waters Emergency Plumbing Illustrated feel fingers flame flapping flung FRABJOUS DAY fragrance fucked gardenia gasp girl Give grab grin hair hear heart honey horned toads howl hurling jowls juniper Kate's Daydream killer's kiss knees Last night last night's dream laugh low-residency Michael Scofield moon so bright morning Mother's murdered's nipple Noreen nose Numbed Overpopulation periwigged piss poems poetry popping Psychiatrist pushes quartz rewriting and rewriting Richard Lehnert robe rouge Rowboats rush Santa Fe seaweed see-through bib sequined shake shimmied shirt shoulders Silicon Valley slammed slap smile Soaring spill stare Sufis Since 1273 teeth thighs think it sun Tonight tossing twist unfolding Vermont watching Wedding what's WHIRLING BACKWARD wife wind wrapping wrinkled yanked yesterday