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Bone Rosary Thomas Lynch

Bone Rosary By Thomas Lynch

Bone Rosary by Thomas Lynch


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Summary

America's much celebrated poet-undertaker Thomas Lynch is renowned for his thought-provoking poems on life, faith, doubt and death. This new retrospective shows the passage of his work over time, 'a pilgrimage of sorts through growing old and facing death - subjects that caregivers know all too well.

Bone Rosary Summary

Bone Rosary: New & Selected Poems by Thomas Lynch

America's much celebrated poet-undertaker Thomas Lynch is renowned for his thought-provoking poems on life, faith, doubt and death. This new retrospective shows the passage of his work over time, 'a pilgrimage of sorts through growing old and facing death - subjects that caregivers know all too well. Lynch's upfront, unvarnished style is likely to resolate with many who have come face to face with life's most important questions' (Mary Plummer, New York Times). Lynch - like Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams - is a poet who writes about real things with language rooted in the everyday yet masterfully infused with power. He spent his working life as an undertaker in Midwest America, becoming in his off-hours a writer of exceptional insight with much to say about life's questions and mysteries - big and small. Drawing on his own daily routine, he transforms the mundane task of preparing the dead into life-affirming accounts of how we live our lives. His lyrical, elegiac poems describe the dead citizens of of his home town, his own family relationships, and scenes and myths from his Irish Catholic upbringing.

Bone Rosary Reviews

Bone Rosary brings the extraordinary work of a lifetime together with new, important, timely poems. This is art that helps us to understand the world as it challenges us to stay alive and in it. Sorrow balanced so evenly with humor - actual hilarity, in fact - is rare, and a reminder of the purpose of poetry itself. How lucky we are to have this collection, which is a celebration of Thomas Lynch, his accomplishments, and his great talent. It's a gift - a palpable reminder of the sacred and immortal power of poetry. -- Laura Kasischke

About Thomas Lynch

Poet, essayist and funeral director Thomas Lynch has published five critically acclaimed collections of poetry, four books of essays and a book of short fiction. His most recent books are The Depositions: New and Selected Essays (W.W. Norton, 2019), and Bone Rosary: New & Selected Poems (Godine, USA, 2021; Bloodaxe Books, UK, 2022). A novel is forthcoming. His first four collections, Skating with Heather Grace (1987), Grimalkin & Other Poems (1994), Still Life in Milford (1998) and Walking Papers (2011), were published by Jonathan Cape in the UK, and his fifth collection, The Sin-Eater: A Breviary (2012), by Salmon Press Poetry in Ireland. Thomas Lynch has written for The Times, The Irish Times, New York Times, Newsweek, and Harper's. His memoir The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade (1997) won the Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction, the American Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has taught at Wayne State University Department of Mortuary Science, University of Michigan Graduate Program in Writing and Emory University Candler School of Theology. His work has been the subject of two documentary films, PBS Frontline's The Undertaking and Cathal Black's Learning Gravity. He worked as a funeral director with the family firm Lynch & Sons in Milford, Michigan from 1973 until his recent retirement, and now divides his time between his home on Mullett Lake in Northern Michigan and his ancestral home in Moveen, Co. Clare, Ireland.

Table of Contents

Cloud of Witnesses: An Introduction * 19 from SKATING WITH HEATHER GRACE Michael's Reply to the White Man * 33 A Death * 35 Venice * 36 The Blood We Paid For * 37 A Family of Fishermen * 39 Tatyana * 40 Like My Father Waking Early * 41 Marriage * 43 Lessons from Berkeley * 44 O Canada * 45 The Widow * 46 A Dream of Death in the First Person * 47 Skating with Heather Grace * 48 Learning Gravity * 50 A Clearing in the Woods * 57 A Note on the Rapture to His True Love * 58 Pornography * 59 The Liturgist * 60 I Felt Myself Turning * 61 A Good Death Even When It Kills You * 62 To Her Sisters on the Nature of the Universe * 63 Where It Came From * 64 Noon on Saturday * 65 Wormwood * 67 Pruning * 68 The Grandmothers * 69 For the Ex-Wife on the Occasion of Her Birthday * 70 from GRIMALKIN & OTHER POEMS Attende Domine * 75 Aisling * 76 At the Opening of Oak Grove Cemetery Bridge * 78 Green Bananas * 81 Adoro Te Devote * 82 Grimalkin * 83 Casablanca * 85 In Paradisum * 86 Inviolata * 87 Liberty * 88 No Prisoners * 89 O Gloriosa Virginum * 92 Rhododendrons * 93 That Scream If You Ever Hear It * 94 The Nines * 96 The Lives of Women * 97 Tommy * 98 West Highland * 99 from STILL LIFE IN MILFORD Art History, Chicago * 103 Kisses * 105 Bishop's Island * 106 Rentals Ledger * 107 An Evening Walk to the Sea by Friesians * 108 Heavenward * 110 Couplets * 111 The Moveen Notebook * 112 The Old Operating Theatre, London, All Souls, Night * 124 She Instructs the Brethren on the Laws of Love * 125 Still Life in Milford-Oil on Canvas by Lester Johnson * 126 from WALKING PAPERS Euclid * 131 Montbretia * 133 Fr. Andrews * 135 To Be Among These Elegant Voices * 136 Corpses Do Not Fret Their Coffin Boards * 139 Oh Say Grim Death * 140 The Life of Fiction * 142 After Your Going * 143 Thirteen for Sean at Thirty * 144 Dear Mr. President * 145 Local Heroes * 147 Dear Mr. Vice President * 149 Himself * 152 Dear Madam Secretary * 153 On a Bar of Chinese Soap * 155 Dear Messrs. Attorneys General * 156 Walking Papers * 158 Calling * 162 Refusing at Fifty-Two to Write Sonnets * 165 from THE SIN-EATER: A BREVIARY The Sin-Eater * 168 Argyle in Agony * 169 Argyle's Vapors * 170 Argyle's Balance * 171 Argyle's Ejaculations * 172 Argyle's Retreat * 173 Argyle's Dream of the Church Dove * 174 Argyle in Carrigaholt * 175 Argyle's Return to the Holy Island * 176 Argyle's Stone * 177 Argyle at Loop Head * 178 Argyle's Eucharist * 179 A Corporal Work of Mercy * 180 Argyle Considers the Elements * 181 Argyle Among the Moveen Lads * 182 His Ambulations * 183 His Repasts * 184 He Considers Not the Lilies but Their Excellencies * 185 He Weeps Among the Clare Antiquities * 186 Argyle at the Ennis Friary * 187 He Posits Certain Mysteries * 188 His Purgations * 189 Argyle on Knocknagaroon * 190 Recompense His Paraclete * 191 CLOUD OF WITNESSES: NEW POEMS A Laving Song * 194 Libra * 195 Accordion * 196 You Who Never Came In * 198 Nativity * 199 Yossef * 200 Some Octaves on Holy Orders * 201 When She Knew * 204 Recompense * 205 How Howard Armstrong Learned the Verities * 206 The Desert Years * 207 At Moyarta * 208 Twelve Days of Christmas * 209 What Shall We Say? * 210 Receipt * 213 St. Kevin and the Temptress * 214 Personal * 215 Her Mother's Irises * 216 San Cassiano * 217 Par Rum Pum Pum Pum * 218 Waterfowl at Summer's End * 220 Moveen Solstice * 221 Flotilla * 222 Genesis 3 * 223 Franchise 2016 * 224 Corrine Among the Fronds of Basil * 226 Gratis * 227 Double Sonnet for the Florist's Son * 228 Interment * 229 Old Dogs * 230 Theodicy: A Lament * 231 The Prince Conti * 233 Another Miracle * 234 In the Gents Loo of the Stella Maris * 235 To His Grandchildren as Dark Draws Hither * 236 Priestess * 238 Digitas Paternae Dextrae * 239 Morning Among Piebalds * 240 Buskers * 241 Meadowhawk * 242 The Sick of the Palsy Healed and His Sins Forgiven * 243 Benediction * 244 Little Elegy * 245

Additional information

NGR9781780376189
9781780376189
1780376189
Bone Rosary: New & Selected Poems by Thomas Lynch
New
Paperback
Bloodaxe Books Ltd
2022-06-23
256
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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