Description

Book Synopsis
O, The Oprah Magazine, 42 Best LGBTQ Books of 2020
NPR's Favorite Books of 2020

In his fourth collection, 13th Balloon, Mark Bibbins turns his candid eye to the American AIDS crisis. With quiet consideration and dark wit, Bibbins addresses the majority of his poems to Mark Crast, his friend and lover who died from AIDS at the early age of 25. Every broken line and startling linguistic turn grapples with the genre of elegy: what does it mean to experience personal loss, Bibbins seems to ask, amidst a greater societal tragedy? The answer is blurred amongst unforeseen disease, intolerance, and the intimate consequences of mismanaged power. Perhaps the most unanswerable question arrives when Bibbins writes, For me elegy/ is like a Ouija planchette/ something I can barely touch/ as I try to make it/ say what I want it to say. And while we are still searching for the words that might begin an answer, Bibbins helps us understand that there is endless value in continuingthrough both joy and griefto wonder.

13th Balloon

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    A Paperback / softback by Mark Bibbins

    £12.34

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      Book details

      Publisher Copper Canyon Press,U.S.
      Published 26 March 2020
      ISBN-13 9781556595776
      978-1556595776
      ISBN-10 1556595778

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      O, The Oprah Magazine, 42 Best LGBTQ Books of 2020
      NPR's Favorite Books of 2020

      In his fourth collection, 13th Balloon, Mark Bibbins turns his candid eye to the American AIDS crisis. With quiet consideration and dark wit, Bibbins addresses the majority of his poems to Mark Crast, his friend and lover who died from AIDS at the early age of 25. Every broken line and startling linguistic turn grapples with the genre of elegy: what does it mean to experience personal loss, Bibbins seems to ask, amidst a greater societal tragedy? The answer is blurred amongst unforeseen disease, intolerance, and the intimate consequences of mismanaged power. Perhaps the most unanswerable question arrives when Bibbins writes, For me elegy/ is like a Ouija planchette/ something I can barely touch/ as I try to make it/ say what I want it to say. And while we are still searching for the words that might begin an answer, Bibbins helps us understand that there is endless value in continuingthrough both joy and griefto wonder.

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