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Poetry Canadian

Nautilus and Bone

by (author) Lisa Richter

Publisher
Frontenac House Ltd.
Initial publish date
Nov 2020
Category
Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781989466124
    Publish Date
    Nov 2020
    List Price
    $19.95

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Description

Nautilus and Bone chronicles the life and work of the radical, passionate Russian-Jewish American poet Anna Margolin on her path toward self-determination. Blending myth, surrealism, historical fact and fiction, this collection of persona poems brings to life one of the most celebrated Yiddish poets of her generation.

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry

About the author

Lisa Richter is the author of a book of poetry, Closer to Where We Began (Tightrope Books, 2017). Her work has previously appeared in The New Quarterly, CV2, The Puritan, The Malahat Review, Literary Review of Canada and the anthology Jack Layton: Art in Action (Quattro Books, 2013). Her next collection of poems, Nautilus and Bone, is forthcoming with Frontenac House in fall 2020. She lives in Toronto.

 

Lisa Richter's profile page

Excerpt: Nautilus and Bone (by (author) Lisa Richter)

FRINGE

 

Chaim paraphrases Marx, quoting Hegel:

all great world events and personages occur twice

the first time as Gothic, the second as farce.

 

How intricate this pleasure of naming

the void my heart intuits, cavorting

with East Side intelligentsia

 

who might take me for vapid waif

until they see me grind

men’s arguments down to their very dregs

so delicious their sputtering:

 

Oh my dear Miss Lebensboym, but we do need women

in our movement, who else to speak to domestic concerns?

 

Amid lampshades fringed with indecency

for lowered gazes we quaff coffee and schnapps

until the sun revolts

against midnight’s chloroform.

 

A burgundy chaise absorbs my limbs.

Women smoking filthy cigarettes caress me

with their ungloved fingers, whispering

of unexpected softness.

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