Thus Spake Gigolo - Softcover

Bailey, Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1630450022 ISBN 13: 9781630450021

Publisher: NYQ Books, 2014

Synopsis

This collection of poems charts the course of a speaker coming-of-age in rural South Mississippi, a world that is sublime and terrifying, but these poems are not limited to one landscape, region or approach. If this collection has a hero, it is Gigolo who confesses his hand-bitten tale of survival, navigating the difficulties of his inevitable frail natures, holding his fist up to what he dreams and lives for. He speaks of the wounds that must be spoken of. He speaks of the correspondence of nature, the marvels of nature. He perseveres adversity, he celebrates adversity, he portrays a speaker's evolution—whole yet broken, dying yet loving—alive at its end.

About this title

About the Author

Scott Bailey, author of Thus Spake Gigolo, grew up in Raleigh, Mississippi, the former home of the National Tobacco Spitting Contest, and he comes from a family of preachers and carpenters. His poems have appeared in journals, such as "The Adirondack Review," "Cortland Review," "Exquisite Corpse," "The Journal," "Meridian," "New York Quarterly," and "Verse Daily." His degrees include a B.A. in English, Summa Cum Laude, an M.A. in Creative Writing from the College of Arts & Letters, The University of Southern Mississippi, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New York University, and a Ph.D. in English from Florida State University.  He has received fellowships from Florida State University, The Mississippi Arts Commission, New York University, and The Valparaiso Foundation in Spain.

From the Back Cover

The penniless spawn of hell-fire spewing evangelicals, Gigolo hotfoots it to the one city where a young man can get paid as long as he's willing to do anything: New Orleans. A Dante in hot pants and platform heels, Gigolo is at his most moving when he describes the world he came from, one of farm life, jail time, and church, church, church, all in the company of characters so odd that Flannery O'Connor would have shaken her head and said, "They're too weird for me." Like cherry bombs, these poems startle, illuminate, and make you cackle with delight as you say, "Awright! Fire up another!"

--David Kirby


Few poets have signaled, from the inside of their debasement, the commerce of the body for sale, leaving out nothing, not even the luciferic joy at the bottom of the well. The chains of Scott Bailey's Gigolo have dragged themselves over the ruined landscape of the city, leaving in their wake the words in this book.

--Andrei Codrescu


Scott Bailey has a distinctive voice. He is Southern, religious, and a homo speaking about poverty, hard-ons and damnation. His persona Gigolo blew me on every poem. His mouth, I mean, his flexible voice is worthy of your attention.

--Edmund White

From the Inside Flap

CONTENTS


1


Grits Saved Me 15


Fire 16


Birth 17


Aristocracy of the Plow 18


Harvest Moon 20


Pasture 22


Convergence 23


Why Should I Stand for Jesus? 24


Public Revelation of Love is Deadly to Love, Most Instances 27


Aunt Louise and Space Shuttle Challenger 29


Polaroid Funeral 30


Down Exit Ramp 69 in Eatonville, Mississippi 31


The Lost Supper 33


On The Other Side 35


Sugar Hill 36


Hallows 37


Bildungsroman 39



2


Gigolo 43


Honky-Tonky Jail 47


Jail 48


Bond 50


Court 52


Probation 55


Goodwill 58


Greyhound 61



3



Death 67


Nightshift 71


My Predecessors 77


The Tree Frog, The Owl, The Bumblebee 80


Do I Dare Disturb the Universe? 81



4



He Found a Diamond, a Big-Ass Diamond 87


"Shit, Look At Her," He Says, Holding up a Potato Log 89


We Must Save Ourselves 91


The Cake Rising 94

Edition details

• Publisher: NYQ Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1630450022
• ISBN 13: 9781630450021
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 104