{"product_id":"piano-in-the-dark-9781803091709","title":"Piano in the Dark","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoetry from an especially deft magician of words.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e This latest book of wonders from Nancy Naomi Carlson fixes upon one of the few defenses we have to confront the body’s betrayals—our words. Though in the end, even the world’s last word “forgets its name . . . has no word for this forgetting.” At once vulnerable and open, tempered and tempted equally by the erotic and the empathic, such dualities limn these affectingly beautiful and lyrical poems. Carlson’s lines, entreating as Scheherazade, “weave chords \/ into tales within tales, whirlpools within seas” to save her life. Indeed, music has no need for voice or harp, as “in anechoic chambers, you become \/ the only instrument of your worldly sounds,” echoing Mozart’s credo “that music lies \/ in the silence between notes.” In a world scarred by pandemics, wars, and violent tribalism, the givens are gone—“talismans we clung to, believing \/ we might be spared in some way \/ by marking our doors \/ with our own sacrificial blood.” In these unflinching free and formal verse poems, Carlson seduces us with the promise of the joy yet to be had, were we to look in the right places.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A 'must-read' Editor's Choice.\"\u003cbr\u003e   * Poetry Daily *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e(Sub)Contexts\u003cbr\u003eThe Last Word\u003cbr\u003eAn Excess of Dreaming\u003cbr\u003eThe Half-Life of Memory\u003cbr\u003eTranslating the Body\u003cbr\u003eComing To\u003cbr\u003eSequelae\u003cbr\u003eCalder’s Menagerie\u003cbr\u003eLockdown Aubade on Rimsky-Korsakov’s Birthday\u003cbr\u003e[Everything in nature contains its violence]\u003cbr\u003eVigilance\u003cbr\u003ePainted Moon\u003cbr\u003eHow Skies Fall\u003cbr\u003eInward Looking\u003cbr\u003eFeast of Tabernacles\u003cbr\u003eSmall Griefs\u003cbr\u003eAfter I Swallowed the Willow Tree\u003cbr\u003eTranslating the Dead\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eII\u003cbr\u003eThree Years Post-Chemo\u003cbr\u003eMannequin Head\u003cbr\u003eQuarantine: Day 40\u003cbr\u003eTintoretto Blues\u003cbr\u003eDay 166\u003cbr\u003eViva the Vagus\u003cbr\u003eAubade: Day 50\u003cbr\u003eOn the Fourth Platonic Virtue\u003cbr\u003eOut of an Absence of Caution\u003cbr\u003eAfter I Xeroxed the Sky\u003cbr\u003eMy Goyishe Ex-Husband\u003cbr\u003e[If soil can resurrect daffodils]\u003cbr\u003eForever-Bound\u003cbr\u003eGood Sense\u003cbr\u003eDecreation\u003cbr\u003eThis Life We Follow\u003cbr\u003eWhy Sturgeon Leap\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIII\u003cbr\u003eBy Any Other Name\u003cbr\u003eOde for Three Exes\u003cbr\u003eStill Life in Orange\u003cbr\u003eAnt Hills\u003cbr\u003eIn Defense of Polyamory\u003cbr\u003eBookends\u003cbr\u003eEtiology\u003cbr\u003eTrisomy\u003cbr\u003eDog Star\u003cbr\u003eIn Other Words\u003cbr\u003eWe Weren’t So Jewish Then\u003cbr\u003eThe Graffiti Artist\u003cbr\u003eOdalisque\u003cbr\u003eSequoia\u003cbr\u003eNocturne\u003cbr\u003eCorpse Flower\u003cbr\u003eFinding\/Keeping the Beat\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Seagull Books London Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49412913332567,"sku":"9781803091709","price":11.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781803091709.jpg?v=1730518524","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/piano-in-the-dark-9781803091709","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}