Carnations

Poems

Fiction & Literature, Poetry
Cover of the book Carnations by Anthony Carelli, Princeton University Press
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Author: Anthony Carelli ISBN: 9781400838240
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: March 14, 2011
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Anthony Carelli
ISBN: 9781400838240
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: March 14, 2011
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

In Anthony Carelli's remarkable debut, Carnations, the poems attempt to reanimate dead metaphors as blossoms: wild and lovely but also fleeting, mortal, and averse to the touch. Here, the poems are carnations, not only flowers, but also body-making words. Nodding to influences as varied as George Herbert, Francis Ponge, Fernando Pessoa, and D. H. Lawrence, Carelli asserts that the poet’s materials--words, objects, phenomena--are sacred, wilting in the moment, yet perennially renewed. Often taking titles from a biblical vocabulary, Carnations reminds us that unremarkable places and events--a game of Frisbee in a winter park, workers stacking panes in a glass factory, or the daily opening of a café--can, in a blink, be new. A short walk home is briefly transformed into a cathedral, and the work-worn body becomes a dancer, a prophet, a muse.
______

From Carnations:
THE PROPHETS

Anthony Carelli
?

A river. And if not the river nearby, then a dream
  of a river. Nothing happens that doesn’t happen
    along a river, however humble the water may be.

Take Rowan Creek, the trickle struggling to lug
  its mirroring across Poynette, wherein, suspended,
    so gentle and shallow, I learned to walk, bobbing

at my father’s knees. Later, whenever we tried
  to meander on our inner tubes, we’d get lodged
    on the bottom. Seth, remember, no matter how we’d

kick and shove off, we’d just get lodged again?
  At most an afternoon would carry us a hundred feet
    toward the willows. We’d piss ourselves on purpose

just to feel the spirits of our warmth haloing out.
  And once, two bald men on the footbridge, bowing
    in the sky, stared down at us without a word.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Anthony Carelli's remarkable debut, Carnations, the poems attempt to reanimate dead metaphors as blossoms: wild and lovely but also fleeting, mortal, and averse to the touch. Here, the poems are carnations, not only flowers, but also body-making words. Nodding to influences as varied as George Herbert, Francis Ponge, Fernando Pessoa, and D. H. Lawrence, Carelli asserts that the poet’s materials--words, objects, phenomena--are sacred, wilting in the moment, yet perennially renewed. Often taking titles from a biblical vocabulary, Carnations reminds us that unremarkable places and events--a game of Frisbee in a winter park, workers stacking panes in a glass factory, or the daily opening of a café--can, in a blink, be new. A short walk home is briefly transformed into a cathedral, and the work-worn body becomes a dancer, a prophet, a muse.
______

From Carnations:
THE PROPHETS

Anthony Carelli
?

A river. And if not the river nearby, then a dream
  of a river. Nothing happens that doesn’t happen
    along a river, however humble the water may be.

Take Rowan Creek, the trickle struggling to lug
  its mirroring across Poynette, wherein, suspended,
    so gentle and shallow, I learned to walk, bobbing

at my father’s knees. Later, whenever we tried
  to meander on our inner tubes, we’d get lodged
    on the bottom. Seth, remember, no matter how we’d

kick and shove off, we’d just get lodged again?
  At most an afternoon would carry us a hundred feet
    toward the willows. We’d piss ourselves on purpose

just to feel the spirits of our warmth haloing out.
  And once, two bald men on the footbridge, bowing
    in the sky, stared down at us without a word.

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