How to communicate : poems

Clark, John Lee 1978- (author.).

Summary: "A stunning debut that "brims with the talent and generosity of a living classic" (Ilya Kaminsky), from an award-winning DeafBlind poet. Formally restless and relentlessly instructive, How to Communicate is a dynamic journey through language, community, and the unfolding of an identity. Poet John Lee Clark pivots from inventive forms inspired by the braille slate to sensuous prose poems to pathbreaking translations from ASL and Protactile, a language built on touch. Amid the astonishing task of constructing a new canon, Clark reveals a radically commonplace life-the vagaries of family, grief, and small delights: visiting a museum, knitting, and, once, encountering a ghost in a gas station. A rare work of transformation and necessary discovery, How to Communicate offers a "steadily revelatory gift" (Carl Phillips)"--

Item details

ISBN: 9781324035343
ISBN: 132403534X
ISBN: 9781324035350
Physical Description: print
104 pages ; 22 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., [2023]

Contents / Notes

Formatted Contents Note:

Machine generated contents note: I. Slateku -- II. Pointing the Needle -- Line of Descent -- On My Return from a Business Trip -- Excessive Force -- Trees -- An Honest Man -- Knitting -- Rebuilding -- Clamor -- Cubist Statue -- Three Squared Cinquains -- A Funeral -- My Friend He -- III. The Fruit Eat I -- The Diagnosis -- The Rebuttal -- The Transition -- The Interaction -- The Gift -- The Mission -- The Manual -- The Culmination -- The Valediction -- IV. Who You -- To Ask -- It Is Necessary -- Mrs. Schultz -- Etienne de Fay -- The Politician -- Old Deaf Joke -- Goldilocks in Denial -- The Bully -- Nicholas Saunderson -- At the Holiday Gas Station -- V. Translations -- Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner: Need -- John Maucere: The Friend -- Patrick Graybill: Memories -- Noah Buchholz: The Moonlight -- John Lee Clark: The Rebuttal -- Oscar Chacon: The Lumberjack Story -- Rhonda Voight-Campbell: Solace -- VI. How to Communicate -- A DeafBlind Poet -- Pearl -- I Would That I Were -- Oralism -- Pass -- Order -- I Promise You -- Morrison Heady -- Sorrow and Joy -- Spread -- Treasure -- Approach -- Self Portrait -- How to Communicate.