Almost Nothing To Be Scared Of (Wisconsin Poetry Series) - Softcover

Clewell, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299307247 ISBN 13: 9780299307240

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2016

Synopsis

Full of Clewell’s distinctive blend of narrative and lyric, as well as his unabashed, idiosyncratic sense of wonder, these poems often spring from unlikely sources: Adam and Eve’s Paradisal do-over at the Jersey shore, the misguided promise of tinfoil hats, Uncle Bud on the Moon, Debbie Fuller on Pluto, debatable Bigfoot nomenclature, Richard Nixon’s social-media rejuvenation, and a Nebraska policeman’s run-in with space aliens who tell him, “We want you to believe in us—but not too much.”
           In Almost Nothing To Be Scared Of, David Clewell’s most expansive work yet, readers will discover a multiplicity of new ways to take heart—surely no small thing in a world where we’re too often asked to take what we’d rather not.

About this title

About the Author

David Clewell is the author of a dozen books of poetry, including Taken Somehow by Surprise, The Low End of Higher Things, Now We’re Getting Somewhere, Jack Ruby’s America, and Blessings in Disguise. He is a former poet laureate of Missouri and also formerly a circus laborer, professional weight guesser, and professional wrestler. He currently labors as a professor of English and director of the creative writing program at Webster University in Saint Louis.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The sign said NO SWIMMING AFTER DARK, so
they didn’t—having grown considerably more circumspect
since the last time they went against the wishes of Management.
Still, they figured it might be all right to go naked
once more and not be ashamed. Those were days of good cheer
in the Garden, but this time Adam couldn’t stop humming
Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini. Even though
the words were impossibly beyond him, Eve in a bikini was not.
—excerpt from “The Real Story of Adam and Eve, Wherein the True Cradle of Civilization Is Revealed,” © The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299307247
• ISBN 13: 9780299307240
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 152