Rootbound: Poems

Emmons, Jeanne

ISBN 10: 0898231841 / ISBN 13: 9780898231847

Published by New Rivers Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A., 1998

About this Item

clean, unmarked copy.

Seller Inventory # 346509

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rootbound: Poems
• Publisher: New Rivers Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0898231841
• ISBN 13: 9780898231847
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry

About this title

Synopsis

Poetry. I drag the machine by its serpentine nose, / and it churns its belly into a hungry nothing, / all gullet, sucking at the lips of paradise, / emptying noise and silence into its hollow whine. (Vacuuming). Whether its piano practice, window washing, or a game of jacks, Jeanne Emmons brings to her domestic poems a rich lyric awareness and a wise if wistful acceptance of human limitations. Maxine Kumin.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Bloodroot"

A single leaf folds
around the closed bud
like a prayerbook shut
on the white forefinger
of a pious young girl.
And then everything opens,
eyes, hands, books,
the green cape thrown off
and the white body emerging,
spinning and swirling her skirts,
and all smile, smile, smile.
But in the dark under the bed,
where nobody can see,
are the red shoes she wears
when everyone presumes she is asleep,
the ones she dances in
until her tender feet bleed.