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Near/Miss
About This Book
Praised in recent years as a "calculating, improvisatory, essential poet" by Daisy Fried in the New York Times, and as "the foremost poet-critic of our time" by Craig Dworkin, Charles Bernstein is a leading voice in American poetry. Near/Miss, Bernstein's first poetry collection in five years, is the apotheosis of his late style, thick with off-center rhythms, hilarious riffs, and verbal extravagance.This collection's title highlights poetry's ability to graze reality without killing it, and at the same time implies that the poems themselves are wounded by the grief of loss. The book opens with a rollicking satire of difficult poetryâproudly declaring itself "a totally inaccessible poem"âand moves on to the stuff of contrarian pop culture and political cynicismâfull of malaprops, mondegreens, nonsequiturs, translations of translations, sardonically vandalized signs, and a hilarious yet sinister feed of blog comments. At the same time, political protest also rubs up against epic collage, through poems exploring the unexpected intimacies and continuities of "our united fates." These poems engage with works by contemporary paintersâincluding Amy Sillman, Rackstraw Downes, and Etel Adnanâand echo translations of poets ranging from Catullus and Virgil to Goethe, Cruz e Souza, and Kandinsky.Grounded in a politics of multiplicity and dissent, and replete with both sharp edges and subtle intimacies, Near/Miss is full of close encounters of every kind.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Thank You for Saying Youâre Welcome
- In Utopia
- High Tide at Race Point
- Donât Tell Me about the Tide . . .
- Grief Haunts the Spoken
- Nowhere Is Just around the Corner
- Sâiâ fosse
- Corrections
- Intaglio
- The Bluebird of Happiness
- Catachresis My Love
- Spring
- Otherwise Heâd Be Dead
- This Poem Is a Hostage
- The Lie of Art
- Why I Am Not a Hippie
- Apoplexy / Apoplexie
- Truly Unexceptional
- Passing
- All Poetry Is Loco
- I Used to Be a Plastic Bottle
- Why I Am Not an Atheist
- The Island of Lost Song
- Confederate Battle Flag
- Sacred Hate
- Me and My Pharaoh . . .
- Catullus 70
- He Said He Was a Professor
- Klang
- Autobiography of an Ex-
- Why I Am Not a Buddhist
- Ballad Laid Bare by Its Devices (Even)
- Animation
- Also Rises the Sun
- Georgics
- Concentration (An Elegy)
- How I Became Prehuman
- Pinkyâs Rule
- My Mommy Is Lost
- Better Off Dead
- Oopera
- Procedure
- Water Under the Bridge . . .
- Recap
- Unconstrained Writing
- Ugly Duckling
- Beyond Compare
- The Pond Off Pamet Road
- The Nunâs Story
- Our United Fates
- To Gonzalo Rojas
- I Donât Remember
- Flag
- Contact Western Union Very Urgent
- Her Ecstasy Is Abstract
- At Sunset, after the Plum Blossoms Begin to Fall . . .
- Each Separate Dying Ember
- Betcha
- Donât Say I Passed When I Die
- Ring Song
- Godâs Silence
- Drambuie
- Doggone Sane
- Fado
- Wild Turning
- This Poem Is a Decoy
- My Luck
- Mystic Brokerage
- Effigy
- Seldom Splendor
- Song of the Wandering Poet
- In the Meantime
- Before Time
- Song
- What Makes a Poem a Poem?
- Thereâs a Hole in My Pocket
- Song Dynasty
- Elfking
- Lacrimae Rerum
- Fare Thee Well
- Notes and Acknowledgments