Description
Book SynopsisFor nearly half a century, Jared Carter has been quietly mapping the American heartland. In this title, in poems selected from his first five books, is the summer-long buzz of the cicada and the crack of the cue ball, the young rebel on his big Harley, and the YMCA secretary who backstrokes her way across the indoor pool.
Trade Review“Carter’s is a poetry of a resolute middle distance, firmly of this world: between the dust under the earth and the dust of space there exists the place that the poem can illumine.”—Helen Vendler,
New York Review of Books“[Carter] writes American poetry the way that William Faulkner wrote American novels. . . . [Carter’s poems] have the homespun flavor of our native music—ballads, country blues, and sweet, clear, understated lyrics.”—Sally A. Lodge, Publishers Weekly
“[Jared Carter] is the rare poet who is rooted in a certain place, which is of course Indiana, yet [he] deals with it in such a way that it is of universal interest.”—Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
"Jared Carter writes the kind of poetry that death does not touch. He brings us a very different atmosphere from this crazy techie world, with a command of metaphor and the bones of memory that do not lie. We trust this poet's vision."—Grace Cavalieri, danmurano.com
"Those of us who practice the craft of poetry will want to keep Darkened Rooms of Summer close at hand, so we can study these poems, and wonder how Jared Carter ushers us so seamlessly into his world, and thus, more deeply into our own."—James Crews,
basalt "Jared Carter's poetry is pure, home-spun Americana, full of small-town people and places in the tradition of Edgar Lee Masters and Sherwood Anderson."—
Portland Book ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction by Ted Kooser
From Work, for the Night Is Coming / 1981GeodesEarly WarningThe MadhouseFor Jack ChathamWalking the TiesGlacierMississinewa County RoadThe UndertakerThe Oddfellows’ Waiting-Room at Glencove CemeteryMonument CityWork, for the Night Is ComingAt the Sign-Painter’sTurning the BrickLanding the BeesThe MeasuringGinsengShaking the PeoniesBirdstone
From After the Rain / 1993After the RainPhoenixScryerThe GleaningThe ShrivingThe Purpose of PoetryMississinewa Reservoir at Winter PoolPoem Written on a Line from the Walam OlumFoundlingCicadasBarn SidingInterviewDrawing the AntiqueFor an Old FlamePortrait StudioCecropia MothFor Starr Atkinson, Who Designed BooksSeed StormGalleynipperChangelingMourning DovesThe BelieversFrom Les Barricades Mystérieuses / 1999ImprovisationSummonsCandleBerceuseCemeteryInterludeFordMillefioriClavichordTankroomPhosphorescencePalimpsestLabyrinthLinenRepriseHawkmothComet
From Cross this Bridge at a Walk / 2006Covered BridgeVisitRecollections of a Contingent of Coxey’s Army Passing through Straughan, Indiana, in April of 1894SpireaPicking Stone
From A Dance in the Street / 2012Prophet TownshipRoadside CrossesSummitFire Burning in a 55-Gallon DrumIn the Warehouse DistrictIn the Military ParkThe Pool at NoonPlastic SackHidden DoorWind EggWhat Is Dream?SphinxWarAt the Art InstituteUp in MichiganBlank PaperUnder the Snowball BushMourning Dove AscendingCicadas in the RainSnow
New PoemsCloudsSchoolhouseDryadAwakeningHomesteadGoneWebEtruriaBoleynVowCross-harpTorcAriadnePoetryPerseusTwilightQuestionPolyxenaGraveyardAchillesMourningPhiloctetesAdulteryArmorPriestessMothJourneymanVisitorPrescriptionEvergreen
