The richly imagined fables, vignettes, and prose poems of Flares reveal the elementary strangeness of this world. Here is the improvised travel record of a poet haunted by history, who documents what he discovers in foreign lands with an exacting and hallucinatory eye. Composed in transit, on diplomatic missions to scores of countries, Flares will endure in the reader’s imagination as a series of signals in the night, illuminating the hidden corners of our time here on earth.
Contents
In Petra
Lodge
Gothic
Explain Yourself
After Visiting the Gorky Institute
Venom
Flare
Roundabout
Fall and Recovery
In Algiers
Fire
On the War Between the States
Ivory
The Pastoral Tradition
Market Conditions
The Gold Standard
In the Galápagos Islands
The Monroe Doctrine
The Last Supper
Juice
Oligarchy
Nomadic
The Afterlife
Excavation
The Final Act
From the Archives
Sin Sports
The Stage
Without
Voltage
The Orchard
The Festival
The Brooch
The Fish Market in Guangzhou
Mirrors
Stew
Faith
The Wedding
Home
Paprika
From the Memory Ward
Elevator
The Rise
On Gnosticism
Cheddar Gorge
Inventory
The Bench
Two-Star Hotel
Providence
Ritual
The Crisis
Auld Lang Syne
Dead Letter
The Word
In Unison
Translation (1)
Translation (2)
The Zoo
Without Objection
The Concert
The Handkerchief
The Odds
Genesis
Portage
The Census
Meantime
Proverbs (1)
Proverbs (2)
Hell-bent
In the City of K.
The Harvest
Return Visit
Notes for a Dance
Stage Presence
The Kiss
Brick
Clay
Utopia
Lilacs
The River
