Zero at the bone : fifty entries against despair
Wiman, Christian, 1966-2023
Book
"Few contemporary writers ask the questions about faith, morality, and God that Christian Wiman does, and even fewer--perhaps none--do so with his urgency and eloquence. Wiman, an award-winning poet and the author of My Bright Abyss, lays the motion of his mind on the page in this genre-defying work, an indivisible blend of poetry, criticism, theology, and searing memoir. As Marilynne Robinson wrote, "[Wiman's] poetry and his scholarship have a purifying urgency that is rare in this world . . . It enables him to say new things in timeless language, so that the reader's surprise and assent are one and the same." Zero at the Bone begins with Wiman's preoccupation with despair, and through fifty brief pieces, he unravels its seductive appeal. The book is studded with the poetry and prose of writers who inhabit Wiman's thoughts, and the voices of Wallace Stevens, Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson, and others join his own. At its heart and Wiman's, however, are his family--his young children (who ask their own invaluable questions, like "Why are you a poet? I mean why?"), his wife, and those he grew up with in West Texas. Wiman is the rare thinker who takes up the mantle of our greatest mystics and does so with an honest, profound, and contemporary sensibility. Zero at the Bone is a revelation."-- Provided by publisher.
Main title:
Zero at the bone : fifty entries against despair / Christian Wiman.
Author:
Wiman, Christian, 1966-, author
Edition:
First edition.
Imprint:
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.©2023
Collation:
x, 306 pages ; 22 cm
Notes:
Includes index.
Contents:
ZeroI will love you in the summertimeThe world soundsSo trued to a roarA stronger name for lifeCan this sin liveIssues of bloodParticular fleshThe man who planted peaceThe keepA prison gets to be a friendProfessor of the practice of religion and literatureSmartNo epiphanies, pleaseKill the creatureArs poeticaFaith comes through hearingFlashbackSo it be oursD., gardeningLeopard breathes at last!The drift of the worldReading Pascal in quarantineHow many daysDrop a notch the sacred shieldAfter the balletA burning worldI remember yesterday. The world was so young.The white buffaloHow to liveBombRemembering a city and a sicknessWriting in the sandThe uses of fictionI learn from her who learns from the airThis I believeA sign in the voidThe rock and the rotJoy! Help! Joy! Help!The weakness meaning timeBone by boneIfs eternallyI sang painA mammal's notebookI don't believe in the soulWhat the Western mysticMy ChristWoman, with tomatoThe eftThe cancer chairNo omen but aweZero.
ISBN:
9780374603458 (hardback)
Dewey class:
818.54
LC class:
PS3573.I47843
Language:
English
Added title:
BRN:
473185