Carnations (ebook)

Argumento de Carnations (ebook)

In Anthony Carellis 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 poets 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.
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From Carnations:
THE PROPHETS
Anthony Carelli

A river. And if not the river nearby, then a dream
of a river. Nothing happens that doesnt 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 fathers knees. Later, whenever we tried
to meander on our inner tubes, wed get lodged
on the bottom. Seth, remember, no matter how wed

kick and shove off, wed just get lodged again?
At most an afternoon would carry us a hundred feet
toward the willows. Wed 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.0The Sabbath 1
Glass Work Song 3
The Prophets 6
The Muse 7
The Crusades 10
The Builder 12
The Collar 13
The Apostles 16
Discernment 18
The Chance 19
In Ordinary Time 20
October Advent 21
The Begats 23
The Shepherd 27
Lectio Divina 28
The Hours 30
Agnus Dei 32
The Brooklyn Heavens 35
Evangelical 36
Birthday 38
Sermon 40
Original Sin 41
Faith 42
Incarnation 43
No, Euripides 46
Yahweh 47
Apples for Thoreau 48
Jerusalem 50
The Crucifixion 51
The Lord?s Prayer 52
The Disciples 54
Sure 55
Amen 57