University of Wisconsin Press, 2004 Cloth: 978-0-299-19940-1 | Paper: 978-0-299-19944-9 Library of Congress Classification PS3572.O3957R43 2004 Dewey Decimal Classification 811.54
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK Reactor gives voice to beloved and ruined American landscapes through extended meditations of an urban mystical wanderer.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Judith Vollmer is professor of English and director of the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. She is the author of three other poetry collections including The Door is Open to the Fire and Level Green, the 1990 winner of the Brittingham Poetry Prize.
REVIEWS
"Read Reactor and let Vollmer refresh your geography in startling ways."—Robin Becke
"If Literature is ‘a study in comparative humanity,’ and I think it is, Reactor places new emphasis on our complicitous age of nuclear fission at all levels of conscientiousness, in the strategies of high brow expatriots, and Vollmer’s identification with the ‘lowest of the low’ wayfaring strangers, a high-wire act among her pantheon of peasant witnesses. This archeology of tonalities, sometimes evinced with compelling lines from her literary ancestors, connects the fierce remembrance of ‘family,’ hers and ours. We have a new vocabulary of songmaking, ancient and modern."—Michael S. Harper, poet laureate emeritus, State of Rhode Island
TABLE OF CONTENTS
<table of contents, p. vii>
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 000
The Coffee Line 000
I.
Yucca Mountain Sequence 000
i. The Reactor
ii. Sedan Crater, 1962-
iii. U1A Tunnel: Persephone's Story
iv. General Brenda Gives Her Press Conference
v. Note & Xeroxed Letter Left in Grotto #8,
Yucca Mountain, October 2001
vi. Abandoned Camp Near Pahute Mesa
II.
Note to the Mist 000
Early Snow 000
Spoil Islands 000
Coffee Narrative 000
On Reading a Fragment from Nuclear Safety Comission Files
Explaining the Events of June 30, 1918 000
Valery Larbaud: Images (translation) 000
Stephane Mallarme (imitation)
Lying Under an Arbor While Dreaming of the Sea 000
Happy Hour at the Pantheon 000
III.
Persephone Returning 000
The Dead Lucia 000
The Moon Replied 000
After Reading the Verses of a Great American Poet 000
The Orange Sea 000
Bruche in Her Summer Kitchen 000
Installation 000
The Legions of Caesar 000
House Spiders 000
To deBeauvoir after Reading On of Several Fashionable
Photographies 000
She Kept Me 000
Breakfast Without Sweets 000
July Evening with Ancestors 000
IV.
Port of Entry 000
Extended Family Genealogy 000
Spill 000
In Praise of Camus at the End of His Century 000
Listening to Birds After a Mild Winter 000
The Eavesdropper 000
Five Wedding Songs 000
The Ice Fall 000
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication:
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Wisconsin Press, 2004 Cloth: 978-0-299-19940-1 Paper: 978-0-299-19944-9
Reactor gives voice to beloved and ruined American landscapes through extended meditations of an urban mystical wanderer.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Judith Vollmer is professor of English and director of the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. She is the author of three other poetry collections including The Door is Open to the Fire and Level Green, the 1990 winner of the Brittingham Poetry Prize.
REVIEWS
"Read Reactor and let Vollmer refresh your geography in startling ways."—Robin Becke
"If Literature is ‘a study in comparative humanity,’ and I think it is, Reactor places new emphasis on our complicitous age of nuclear fission at all levels of conscientiousness, in the strategies of high brow expatriots, and Vollmer’s identification with the ‘lowest of the low’ wayfaring strangers, a high-wire act among her pantheon of peasant witnesses. This archeology of tonalities, sometimes evinced with compelling lines from her literary ancestors, connects the fierce remembrance of ‘family,’ hers and ours. We have a new vocabulary of songmaking, ancient and modern."—Michael S. Harper, poet laureate emeritus, State of Rhode Island
TABLE OF CONTENTS
<table of contents, p. vii>
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 000
The Coffee Line 000
I.
Yucca Mountain Sequence 000
i. The Reactor
ii. Sedan Crater, 1962-
iii. U1A Tunnel: Persephone's Story
iv. General Brenda Gives Her Press Conference
v. Note & Xeroxed Letter Left in Grotto #8,
Yucca Mountain, October 2001
vi. Abandoned Camp Near Pahute Mesa
II.
Note to the Mist 000
Early Snow 000
Spoil Islands 000
Coffee Narrative 000
On Reading a Fragment from Nuclear Safety Comission Files
Explaining the Events of June 30, 1918 000
Valery Larbaud: Images (translation) 000
Stephane Mallarme (imitation)
Lying Under an Arbor While Dreaming of the Sea 000
Happy Hour at the Pantheon 000
III.
Persephone Returning 000
The Dead Lucia 000
The Moon Replied 000
After Reading the Verses of a Great American Poet 000
The Orange Sea 000
Bruche in Her Summer Kitchen 000
Installation 000
The Legions of Caesar 000
House Spiders 000
To deBeauvoir after Reading On of Several Fashionable
Photographies 000
She Kept Me 000
Breakfast Without Sweets 000
July Evening with Ancestors 000
IV.
Port of Entry 000
Extended Family Genealogy 000
Spill 000
In Praise of Camus at the End of His Century 000
Listening to Birds After a Mild Winter 000
The Eavesdropper 000
Five Wedding Songs 000
The Ice Fall 000
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication:
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE