Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2019
Interim Test Site Poetry Series Prize
The beautifully crafted poems in
Riddle Field explore two parallel themes, the impact of the impending destruction of a dam on a small town and the trauma of sexual abuse and eventual recovery from it. This work focuses on the environment, human and physical, in which the loss of nature and innocence is born and calls attention to the many ways we create both intimacy and distance when trauma is hidden or denied. Derek Thomas Dew's language is harsh, honest, and sometimes heartbreaking. His poems capture the confusion and fatigue that must be navigated for a victim of abuse to piece himself back together and the internal strife that comes with carry-ing a traumatic secret that can no longer be ignored.
Rich with unforgettable images and the quiet strength of hard-won survival,
Riddle Field tackles the complex process of achieving self-awareness and recovery in the wake of profound trauma.
Table of Contents
- Part I.
- Town in the Radio
- Mainland
- Far From Walter
- Wet Down
- Old Carver
- Confluence
- Yellow Corner
- The Nameless
- Winchuck
- Part II.
- I'm Walter
- Baby Prince
- Articles
- He Ring
- Grin Burnt
- Little Bread
- Last November's Burn
- The Mermaid Club
- Soft Thieves
- Blue Masking Tape
- Part III.
- Gambit
- Big Drown
- Inosculation
- Short Leg
- Border Huts 37
Low Bite 38
From Trains 39
My Helicopters 40
Light Us Down 41
That Clapping 42
Cat Root 43
Ring Up Dawn
- Part IV.
- Griddle Six
- Liar's Dice
- Tunnel Music
- Watchcoat
- Ducksing
- Placeholder
- Trouble Knuckle
- Elkstone
- The Allowance
- Cairn
- Topples Cake
- Part V.
- Between Churches
- Land That Knows Hands
- Cursorial
- Reliquary 1
- Reliquary 2
- Reliquary 3
- Reliquary 4
- Very
- Afterward
- Notes
