Punctum

Fiction & Literature, Poetry, American
Cover of the book Punctum by Lesley Jenike, The Kent State University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Lesley Jenike ISBN: 9781631012983
Publisher: The Kent State University Press Publication: January 30, 2017
Imprint: The Kent State University Press Language: English
Author: Lesley Jenike
ISBN: 9781631012983
Publisher: The Kent State University Press
Publication: January 30, 2017
Imprint: The Kent State University Press
Language: English

“In Punctum:, Lesley Jenike’s new collection, she writes, ‘It’s our language: what can we call a thing that is and is not.’ These poems are haunted by a ‘non-child,’ a child who was not to be born, and with it, a life the speaker was not to live. Absence itself becomes a nearly tangible presence. I don’t know how Jenike does it—breaks your heart and makes you want more—but I can’t remember the last time I read poems as smart and sure and devastatingly precise in their language, imagery, and feeling. In a poem about a fateful ultrasound, one that reveals no fetal heartbeat, she writes, ‘the doctor calls it “practice,” snapping off // the screen, tearing up the spit-out photograph. / “Next time,” she says, “it’ll be the real thing.”’ Mark my words: these poems are—and this poet is—the real thing. Punctum: is a remarkable accomplishment.”—Maggie Smith

“Riffing on Barthes’s notion of punctum, his ‘third meaning,’ and its other definitions—tear duct, small point, strike-through—Jenike creates, with her Punctum:, a love song to the lost child, to the living child, to the ineffable nonexistent, and to the abundant existent that takes my breath away. This collection’s fulsome lines and literary touchstones balance precariously, sometimes archaically, always brilliantly, with the gravities of the physical body and the ruins of our 21stcentury planet to give us something new, rare, and important.”—Kathy Fagan

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

“In Punctum:, Lesley Jenike’s new collection, she writes, ‘It’s our language: what can we call a thing that is and is not.’ These poems are haunted by a ‘non-child,’ a child who was not to be born, and with it, a life the speaker was not to live. Absence itself becomes a nearly tangible presence. I don’t know how Jenike does it—breaks your heart and makes you want more—but I can’t remember the last time I read poems as smart and sure and devastatingly precise in their language, imagery, and feeling. In a poem about a fateful ultrasound, one that reveals no fetal heartbeat, she writes, ‘the doctor calls it “practice,” snapping off // the screen, tearing up the spit-out photograph. / “Next time,” she says, “it’ll be the real thing.”’ Mark my words: these poems are—and this poet is—the real thing. Punctum: is a remarkable accomplishment.”—Maggie Smith

“Riffing on Barthes’s notion of punctum, his ‘third meaning,’ and its other definitions—tear duct, small point, strike-through—Jenike creates, with her Punctum:, a love song to the lost child, to the living child, to the ineffable nonexistent, and to the abundant existent that takes my breath away. This collection’s fulsome lines and literary touchstones balance precariously, sometimes archaically, always brilliantly, with the gravities of the physical body and the ruins of our 21stcentury planet to give us something new, rare, and important.”—Kathy Fagan

More books from The Kent State University Press

Cover of the book War by Revolution by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Though Murder Has No Tongue by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Dissolving Tensions by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Landmarks by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Long Road to Liberty by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Forgotten under a Tropical Sun by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Translation by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Beyond Trochenbrod by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book OSS Against the Reich by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Arrow Talk by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Mesmerists, Monsters, and Machines by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Above the Shots by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Reading the Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book No Uncle Sam by Lesley Jenike
Cover of the book Rhetorical Drag by Lesley Jenike
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy