Last Exposures: A Sequence of Poems - Hardcover

Hankla, Cathryn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080712947X ISBN 13: 9780807129470

Publisher: Louisiana State University Press, 2004

Synopsis

In this powerful poetic sequence wrought of deft tercets, Cathryn Hankla navigates the slippery, ever-changing territory between art and life. The death of the poet's father by car accident is the focal event for the collection, and all the poems reflect the collision of the physical and transcendent. Whether describing the abandoned nest of a Carolina wren or the excavation of the Kennewick Man, Hankla sounds a muted grief in these lines. But with wit, channeled through language and rhythm, the poet keeps traveling forward: by car and by camel, from San Francisco to Spain, with many stops between. As she takes us with her, finally off the map into regions of the interior, we discover what is at once weighty and wondrous, like ghostly snapshots left behind in a camera: "Everything and everyone who have carried / Us to this place."

Only Thyme

I pull you out by the roots, fierce love, But you still smell of thyme and lemon. What were you thinking, to die

Instead of wintering, after so many seasons Of spring shoots and new greening? Surely your gnarled, woody fibers

Are more alive than they look. Yet after patient weeks of rain, nothing Grows except the cutting I potted,

A woolly patch dwarfed by purple basil. Making space for new plants, I pull up Withered stems, baring your roots, and

The scent runs through me, like music Pouring through a sieve Of consciousness, leaving only this. "Only Thyme" published in Last Exposures: A Sequence of Poems by Cathryn Hankla. Copyright 2004 by Cathryn Hankla. All rights reserved.

About this title

Review:

"Hankla is one of those poets who challenges the reader to assemble a coherent narrative from the lyric fragments she provides. She is part sibyl and part Cassandra, and her business is mysteries and the positing of mysterious questions."

About the Author:

Cathryn Hankla is the author of ten books of poetry and fiction, including the verse collections Negative History, Texas School Book Depository, and Poems for the Pardonedand the novels A Blue Moon in Poorwater and The Land Between. She lives in Roanoke, Virginia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 080712947X
• ISBN 13: 9780807129470
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 64