Portland Public Library

The emperor of water clocks, poems, Yusef Komunyakaa

eng

Includes bibliographical references (page 113)

no index present

poetry

The emperor of water clocks

bibliography

905970246

Yusef Komunyakaa

poems

"The wildly enchanting new collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa "If I am not Ulysses, I am / his dear, ruthless half-brother." So announces Yusef Komunyakaa early in his lush new collection, The Emperor of Water Clocks. But Ulysses (or his half brother) is but one of the beguiling guises Komunyakaa dons over the course of this densely lyrical book. Here his speaker observes a doomed court jester; here he is with Napoleon, as the emperor "tells the doctor to cut out his heart / & send it to the empress, Marie-Louise"; here he is at the circus, observing as "The strong man presses six hundred pounds, / his muscles flexed for the woman / whose T-shirt says, these guns are loaded"; and here is just a man, placing "a few red anemones / & a sheaf of wheat" on Mahmoud Darwish's grave, reflecting on why "I'd rather die a poet / than a warrior." Through these mutations and migrations and permutations and peregrinations there are constants: Komunyakaa's jazz-inflected rhythms; his effortlessly surreal images; his celebration of natural beauty and of love. There is also his insistent inquiry into the structures and struggles of power: not only of, say, king against jester but of man against his own desire and of the present against the pernicious influence of the past. Another brilliant collection from the man David Wojahn has called one of our "most significant and individual voices," The Emperor of Water Clocks delights, challenges, and satisfies"--, Provided by publisher"The new collection from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, featuring his signature jazz-like phrasing and insistent inquiry into the structures and struggles of power"--, Provided by publisher

The Land of Cockaigne -- Omens -- The Water Clock -- The Emperor -- The Fool -- The Raven Master -- The King's Salt -- Lemons -- Turner's Great Tussle with Water -- Sperm Oil -- Nocturnal Houses -- Augury at Sunset -- Skulking Across Snow -- Sprung Rhythm of a Landscape -- Rock Me, Mercy -- Islands -- Latitudes -- Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash -- The Relic -- Il Duce's Villa -- Et Tu, Brutust -- The Gold Pistol -- Faces at the Window -- Cafe Du Rat Mort -- The Circus -- Minotaur -- Dear Pandora -- Transference and Bling -- Scrimmage -- Ironwork -- Common Wealth -- Torsion -- Always a Way -- Fortress -- Longitudes -- Daytime Begins with a Line by Anna Akhmatova -- Michio Ito's Fox and Hawk -- Caffe Reggio -- Praise Be -- Krar -- Dead Reckoning II -- A Night in Tunisia -- The King -- The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott's Collected Poems -- The Green Horse -- Ode to the Oud -- With My Fish-Skin Drum -- Envoy to Palestine -- Timbuktu -- Monolith -- Ghazal, After Ferguson -- Interrogation -- Precious Metals -- The Enchanted Diver -- A Prayer -- The Work of Orpheus -- Emprean Isles -- Springtime in Atlantis