0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Poetry texts & anthologies

Buy Now

When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds (Paperback) Loot Price: R472
Discovery Miles 4 720
You Save: R31 (6%)
When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds (Paperback): Peter Markus

When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds (Paperback)

Peter Markus

Series: Made in Michigan Writers Series

 (sign in to rate)
List price R503 Loot Price R472 Discovery Miles 4 720 You Save R31 (6%)

Bookmark and Share

Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days

Over the course of two decades and six books, Peter Markus has been making fiction out of a lexicon shaped by the words brother and fish and mud. In an essay on Markus's work, Brian Evenson writes, ""If it's not clear by now, Markus's use of English is quite unique. It is instead a sort of ritual speech, an almost religious invocation in which words themselves, through repetition, acquire a magic or power that revives the simpler, blunter world of childhood."" Now, in his debut book of poems, When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds, Markus tunes his eye and ear toward a new world, a world where father is the new brother, a world where the father's slow dying and eventual death leads Markus, the son, to take a walk outside to ""meet my shadow in the deepening shade."" In this collection, a son is simultaneously caring for his father, losing his father, and finding his dead father in the trees and the water and the sky. He finds solace in the birds and in the river that runs between his house and his parents' house, with its view of the shut-down steel mill on the river's other side, now in the process of being torn down. The book is steadily punctuated by this recurring sentence that the son wakes up to each day: My father is dying in a house across the river. The rhythmic and recursive nature to these poems places the reader right alongside the son as he navigates his journey of mourning. These are poems written in conversation with the poems of Jack Gilbert, Linda Gregg, Jim Harrison, Jane Kenyon, Raymond Carver, Theodore Roethke too-poets whose poems at times taught Markus how to speak. ""In a dark time . . .,"" we often hear it said, ""there are no words."" But the truth is, there are always words. Sometimes our words are all we have to hold onto, to help us see through the darkened woods and muddy waters, times when the ear begins to listen, the eye begins to see, and the mouth, the body, and the heart, in chorus, begin to speak. Fans of Markus's work and all of those who are caring for dying parents or grieving their loss will find comfort, kinship, and appreciation in this honest and beautiful collection.

General

Imprint: Wayne State University Press
Country of origin: United States
Series: Made in Michigan Writers Series
Release date: August 2021
Authors: Peter Markus
Dimensions: 229 x 152mm (L x W)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 110
ISBN-13: 978-0-8143-4850-5
Categories: Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Poetry texts & anthologies > General
Promotions
LSN: 0-8143-4850-5
Barcode: 9780814348505

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!

You might also like..

Letters Of Alchemy
Shakeela Kingzley Paperback R304 Discovery Miles 3 040
Our Words, Our Worlds - Writing On Black…
Makhosazana Xaba Paperback R315 R291 Discovery Miles 2 910
Years Of Fire And Ash - South African…
Wamuwi Mbao Paperback R260 R232 Discovery Miles 2 320
The Sun And Her Flowers
Rupi Kaur Paperback  (5)
R444 R279 Discovery Miles 2 790
The Hill We Climb - An Inaugural Poem
Amanda Gorman Hardcover R328 Discovery Miles 3 280
Knapsekerels
Pieter Fourie Paperback R175 R162 Discovery Miles 1 620
In A Free State - A Music
P.R. Anderson Paperback R209 Discovery Miles 2 090
Loss - Poems To Better Weather The Many…
Donna Ashworth Hardcover  (1)
R250 R227 Discovery Miles 2 270
Life - Poems To Help Navigate Life's…
Donna Ashworth Hardcover R250 R227 Discovery Miles 2 270
Olga Kirsch - A Life In Poetry
Egonne Roth Paperback R275 R254 Discovery Miles 2 540
Die Maan Is Swart - Gedigte Van Adam…
Adam Small, Ronelda Kamfer Paperback  (1)
R330 R309 Discovery Miles 3 090
What The Moon Gave Her
Christi Steyn Paperback R218 Discovery Miles 2 180

See more

Partners