Four Way Books, 2011 Paper: 978-1-935536-11-6 Library of Congress Classification PS3566.R814I6 2011 Dewey Decimal Classification 811.54
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In a Beautiful Country examines America’s suburbs and exurbs where “The thrown newspaper fails / to reach the steps.” Taking place beside hospital beds and amid outlet malls, within earshot of military bases and in the light of horror movies, these poems mourn the loss of parents, friends, and our sense of our nation. Turning to ballad-like rhythms, Prufer critiques romanticized visions of art while asserting its central role in citizenship and empire.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
KEVIN PRUFER is the author of four poetry collections and editor-at-large of Pleiades. He teaches at the University of Houston.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
In a Beautiful Country • Citizen • Patriot Missile • On Mercy • Cancer • Seeds • It Is Not a Star, It Is an Airplane • Love Poem • What I Gave the 20th Century • Distant Strangers • Behind the Barracks, After the War • The New Century • Love Letter • The Internet • Love Poem • Ars Poetica • Ars Poetica • The Suicides • The Ambassador • Landscape • Little Paper Sacrifice • Icicles • Elegy • Burial Hymn in Winter • God’s Grandeur • Near Whiteman Air Force Base • In Some Parts of the Movie We’re Comrades • The Villain and His Helicopter • Late Empires • Cartoon Featurette • Recent History • Broken Statue of Gabriel • Pre-Elegies • Transparent Cities • The Failure of Parents to Survive Their Children • The Dead Mother • Four Artes Poeticae • Night Watch • The 20th Century • Recent History • A Wandering Star • Breather • Pills • In My Brain Is a Room... • Postscript
In a Beautiful Country examines America’s suburbs and exurbs where “The thrown newspaper fails / to reach the steps.” Taking place beside hospital beds and amid outlet malls, within earshot of military bases and in the light of horror movies, these poems mourn the loss of parents, friends, and our sense of our nation. Turning to ballad-like rhythms, Prufer critiques romanticized visions of art while asserting its central role in citizenship and empire.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
KEVIN PRUFER is the author of four poetry collections and editor-at-large of Pleiades. He teaches at the University of Houston.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
In a Beautiful Country • Citizen • Patriot Missile • On Mercy • Cancer • Seeds • It Is Not a Star, It Is an Airplane • Love Poem • What I Gave the 20th Century • Distant Strangers • Behind the Barracks, After the War • The New Century • Love Letter • The Internet • Love Poem • Ars Poetica • Ars Poetica • The Suicides • The Ambassador • Landscape • Little Paper Sacrifice • Icicles • Elegy • Burial Hymn in Winter • God’s Grandeur • Near Whiteman Air Force Base • In Some Parts of the Movie We’re Comrades • The Villain and His Helicopter • Late Empires • Cartoon Featurette • Recent History • Broken Statue of Gabriel • Pre-Elegies • Transparent Cities • The Failure of Parents to Survive Their Children • The Dead Mother • Four Artes Poeticae • Night Watch • The 20th Century • Recent History • A Wandering Star • Breather • Pills • In My Brain Is a Room... • Postscript