IWe couldn’t move in until we pulled the toysout of the snarled shag carpet. So much brokenplastic. This isn’t a dream narrative. We thoughtit would take forever.2“A collection must say something,”he says.But I’m sick to deathof things that talkabout other thingslike there was no end to it
Death
Rae Armantrout
Feature Date
- November 29, 2024
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“Death” from GO FIGURE © 2024 by Rae Armantrout.
Published by Wesleyan University Press.
Used by permission.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
"Armantrout's love of language and the joy she brings to shaping make this a welcome balm for uncertain times. Short, focused poems address topics ranging from the connection between beauty and significance to the sickening regularity of mass shootings in America. Other subjects are more innocuous, with often humorous imagery: a cauliflower head is 'made of/ little noggins' while a palm frond 'shimmies/ like a tambourine.'"
—Publishers Weekly
"Armantrout, winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, observes the world through a lens that zooms in, magnifies, critiques, and describes with precision and pragmatism. The poems are also concerned with how language and meaning are made and how that subsequently affects one's experience of the world. Whether it is the likes and shares of social media, the next generation of AI, or the observant naming of beautiful objects, Armantrout's latest poems are timely and timeless."
—Booklist
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