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Playlist for the Apocalypse : poems
2021
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Publishers Weekly Review
In Dove's commanding first collection of new poems since her 2017 NAACP Image Award-winning Collected Poems: 1974-2004, she explores apocalypses in their many forms: climatic, social, personal, and political. From her opening piece commemorating the life of Henry Martin, born into enslavement at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello on the same day Jefferson-"the Great Man"-died, Dove finds powerful moments of grace and resistance in the lives of those who have been oppressed and silenced. These pieces get to the heart of injustice in lines as direct as they are lyrical: "You think/ as long as we stay where/ you've tossed us, on/ the slag heap of your regard,/ the republic is safe." Whether examining the origin of the term ghetto in 16th-century Venice or ruminating on her struggles with illness, Dove's poems hold enormous historical weight and are enriched by her curiosity and keen perceptiveness. For Dove, language presents opportunities for renewed hope; as she writes, "each word caught right is a pawned memory, humbly reclaimed." Dove brilliantly breathes new life into the present age, revealing it as a time for urgent change. (Aug.)
Booklist Review
This is Dove's first new collection in a dozen years, following her Collected Poems, 1974--2004 (2016), and it is a potent and many-chambered volume showcasing the highly awarded former U.S. Poet Laureate's signature gift for historical illumination, especially in sharp and poignant portraits of marginalized figures. Here her subjects include Henry Martin, born into slavery at Monticello the day Thomas Jefferson died and who served as the Rotunda bellringer at the University of Virginia, where Dove is a professor, for more than 50 years. Sarra Copia Sullam (1592--1641) was confined to Venice's Jewish ghetto yet became a prominent literary and intellectual luminary. In "The Standing Witness," a song cycle of searing concision inspired by the Statue of Liberty, Dove considers the American story from the assassinations of 1968 through the reign of Muhammad Ali, Roe v. Wade, AIDS, 9/11, the Obama presidency, and the whiplash of Trump. Here, too, are poems of pirouetting wit and jujitsu power about family, food, nature, memory, complacency, protest, and her own valiant battle for health. Dove is a poet of profound perspective, genius, and grace.
Summary

In her first volume of new poems in twelve years, Rita Dove investigates the vacillating moral compass guiding America's, and the world's, experiments in democracy. Whether depicting the first Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Venice or the contemporary efforts of Black Lives Matter, a girls' night clubbing in the shadow of World War II or the doomed nobility of Muhammad Ali's conscious objector stance, this extraordinary poet never fails to connect history's grand exploits to the triumphs and tragedies of individual lives.

Meticulously orchestrated and musical in its forms, Playlist for the Apocalypse collects a dazzling array of voices: an elevator operator simmers with resentment, an octogenarian dances an exuberant mambo, a spring cricket philosophizes with mordant humor on hip hop, critics, and Valentine's Day. Calamity turns all too personal in the book's final section, "Little Book of Woe," which charts a journey from terror to hope as Dove learns to cope with debilitating chronic illness.

At turns audaciously playful and grave, alternating poignant meditations on mortality and acerbic observations of injustice, Playlist for the Apocalypse takes us from the smallest moments of redemption to catastrophic failures of the human soul. Listen up, the poet says, speaking truth to power; what you'll hear in return is "a lifetime of song."

Table of Contents
Prose in a Small Spacep. 1
Time's Arrow
Bellringerp. 5
Lucille, Post-Operative Yearsp. 7
Family Reunionp. 8
Girls on the Town, 1946p. 10
Eurydice, Turningp. 11
Scarfp. 12
From the Sidelinesp. 13
Mirrorp. 14
Found Sonnet: The Wigp. 15
Trans-p. 16
Climactericp. 17
Islandp. 18
Vacationp. 19
A-wing'p. 20
After Egypt
Little Townp. 25
Foundryp. 26
Sarra's Answerp. 28
Sarra's Bluesp. 29
Aubade: The Constitutionalp. 30
Sketch for Terezínp. 32
Orders of the Dayp. 35
Transitp. 36
Declaration of Interdependencep. 37
Elevator Man, 1949p. 39
Youth Sundayp. 40
Aubade Eastp. 41
Trayvon, Reduxp. 42
Aubade Westp. 44
Naji, 14. Philadelphia.p. 45
Ghettoland: Exeuntp. 46
Spring Cricket
The Spring Cricket Considers the Question of Negritudep. 49
The Spring Cricket Repudiates His Parable of Negritudep. 50
The Spring Cricket's Grievance: Little Outburstp. 52
The Spring Cricket Observes Valentine's Dayp. 53
The Spring Cricket's Discourse on Criticsp. 54
Hip Hop Cricketp. 55
Postludep. 56
A Standing Witness
Beside the Golden Doorp. 59
Your Tired, Your Poor ...p. 60
Bridged Airp. 61
Giantp. 62
Huddlep. 63
Woman, Aflamep. 64
Mother of Exilesp. 65
Wretchedp. 66
Limbs Astride, Land to Landp. 67
World-Wide Welcomep. 68
Imprisoned Lightningp. 70
Send These to Mep. 71
Keep Your Storied Pompp. 72
The Sunset Gatesp. 73
Eight Angry Odes
The Angry Odes: An Introductionp. 77
Pedestrian Crossing, Charlottesvillep. 78
Ode on a Shopping List Found in Last Season's Shortsp. 79
Insomnia Etiquettep. 80
Ode to My Right Kneep. 82
Anniversaryp. 83
Shakespeare Doesn't Carep. 84
A Sonnet for the Sonnetp. 86
Little Book of Woe
Soupp. 89
Pearl on Wednesdaysp. 91
The Terror and the Pityp. 92
No Colorp. 93
Blues, Straightp. 94
Borderline Mambop. 95
Voiceoverp. 96
Rosaryp. 98
Green Koanp. 100
Last Wordsp. 101
This Is the Poem I Did Not Writep. 102
Rive d'Uralep. 103
Mercyp. 107
Wayfarer's Night Songp. 108
Notesp. 109
Acknowledgmentsp. 113
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