Black Sea (carnegie Mellon Poetry Series)

Synopsis

David Yezzi’s Fourth Book Of Poems Considers What It’s Like, During Times Of Roiling Change, To Feel Like A Stranger On One’s Own Street And In One’s Own Country. This Uprooting Is Partly Geographic, Partly Psychic: What Was Familiar Has Become As Foreign As The Fabled Black Sea (the Site Of The Roman Poet Ovid’s Exile). The Emotional Pressure Of This Dislocation Pushes His Poems Into Lyric Fragments And Mordant Humor. Home, Once A Comfort, Now Hides A Threat. 1. Night Blind -- Living Room -- Café Future -- The Chain -- New Town -- Weeds -- Dying The Day Prince Died -- The Consolations -- Meditation -- Tragedy -- Plague -- Stalker ; 2. Black Sea. I. Tomis -- Ii. White Jasmine -- Iii. False Holly -- Iv. Patapsco -- V. The Long Coat -- Vi. Truepenny -- Vii. The Drain -- Viii. Capgras -- Ix. Low Ceiling -- X. Aubade ; 3. On The Death Of A Houseplant -- Hooked -- Crush -- The Double Deuce -- Mouse Drawer -- Thud -- Tumor Tree -- Old Friends -- Sourdough -- The Hug ; 4. Raking -- The Able Man -- Paper Whites -- Let -- Low Pressure -- Up High, No Higher -- Keats In Louisville -- Pan Am -- Last Job -- The Faculty Abroad -- Humblebrag -- The Rock Balancer. David Yezzi.