The Volcano and After: Selected and New Poems 2002-2019

by Alicia Suskin Ostriker

Overview

Alicia Suskin Ostriker’s passionate voice has long been acknowledged as a vital force in American poetry. From urgent spiritual quest to biting political satire, from elegy to comedy, from celebration of the city street and the world “as a paradise might be / if we had eyes to see,” to the “crack in earth . . . crack in her mind,” from brilliant evocations of art and music to mother-daughter wrestlings, Ostriker’s poetry rings with insistence on beauty and truth. Drawing from six of her previous books, and highlighting a sequence of bold new poems exploring the challenges and absurdities of aging, The Volcano and After is a masterpiece for our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822967460
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	10/15/2024
Series:	Pitt Poetry Series
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Alicia Suskin Ostriker is a major American poet and critic. She is the author of numerous poetry collections, including, most recently, The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog; The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems, 1979–2011; and The Book of Seventy, winner of the National Jewish Book Award. She has received the Paterson Poetry Prize, the San Francisco State Poetry Center Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award, among other honors. Ostriker teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Drew University and is currently a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Table of Contents

The Unmasking xi

Preface xiii

The volcano sequence (2002)

Prelude: Volcano 5

Fugue: Mother 7

The Yearning 10

Psalm (excerpt) 11

Theodicy: A Dialogue 12

Call And Response 13

Our Mothers: A Correspondence 15

The Shekhinah as Mute 17

Nevertheless She Moves 18

Bruriah 19

The Volcano Breathes 21

Psalm (excerpt) 24

I Decide to Call You "Being" 25

Seasonal 26

Interlude: The Avenue of the Americas 28

Memory 30

About to Sell Your House 31

Rewind 32

Physical Examination 33

Memory 34

No Heaven (2005)

Vocation 37

Birdcall 38

Pickup 40

Liking It 41

Crosstown 42

May Rain, Princeton 43

Running Out the Clock 44

The Speech of the Creature 45

Mid-February 47

Caravaggio: The Painting of Force and Violence 48

The Kiss of Judas 51

Rembrandt: Work and Love 53

Cosi Fan Tutte: Of Desire and Delight 55

Schumann, Op. 16: The Greater Happiness 58

An Album of Chinese Fan Paintings 60

A Walker in the City I 62

A Voice at the Rally 65

The Window, at the Moment of Flame 66

Poem Sixty Years after Auschwitz 67

Hunger 69

Elegy before the War (excerpts) 71

Fix 78

Daffodils 79

The Book of Seventy (2009)

Approaching Seventy (excerpts) 83

Insomnia 86

Honey of Generation 87

Late Winter Rain 88

West Fourth Street 89

The Plateau 90

Our Dead Friend 91

Persephone to Demeter 93

Demeter to Persephone 94

Gaia Regards Her Children 95

Lord Krishna to the Summer Handyman 96

Born in the USA 97

Laundry 98

Dear God 99

At the Revelation Restaurant (2010)

The Bird 103

Isla Mujeres 104

Love I 105

Love II (Summertime) 106

Love III 107

Love IV 108

Ars Poetica: Seven Poems 109

The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog (2014)

The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog 115

Deer Walk Upon Our Mountains 116

The Drink Triptych 117

Song 118

The Wind That Blows Through Me 119

Soften and Melt 120

April 121

In Every Life 122

Anger I: Gray Cement 123

The Fear Triptych 124

They Speak of Race 125

Ridiculous 126

Awakening 127

I Want to Live 128

The Sorrow Triptych 130

Anger II: The Rape 131

In War Time 132

Paw on Your Lap 133

Brightness Falls from the Air 134

Waiting for the Light (2017)

August Morning, Upper Broadway 137

The Light 138

How Fortunate the Boy 139

Mannahatta 140

The First Snowfall 141

The Glory of Cities 142

Bangladesh: The Driver 143

Cinco de Mayo 144

Biking to the George Washington Bridge 145

Ghazal: The Minimum Wage, 2014 146

A Walker in the City II 147

Waiting for the Light 148

Ghazal: America 150

Afghanistan: The Raped Girl 151

Q&A: Insurance 152

Making a Meal of Them 154

Dare I Call You Cousin 156

Temblor 157

The Liberal Arts 160

To Charlie, on His Poetry 161

Underground 163

Ghazal: America the Beautiful 164

Q&A: Reality 165

Approaching Eighty: New Poems (2010-2019)

What the Butterfly Is Thinking 169

November Eleventh: Two Poems 170

Approaching Eighty, Biking Up Prospect 172

The Transition: Five Poems 173

They Are Always Asking 178

Thirst 179

Approaching Eighty: Six Poems 180

Reading Dan Beachy-Quick, Wonderful Investigations 186

Naming the Thirst Again 187

The Sea 189

My Mother Refused To Weed 191

Mother in the Assisted Living 192

Old Woman at the River 193

A Season of Acid Rain 194

Utopian 195

Rouffignac 196

The Death of the Swan, and Other Questions 197

The Rose Tree 198

The Laptop Also Is Dying 199

The Words When I Wrote Them 200

Biking Riverside Drive Again 201

Eleanor, 1884-1962: Five Poems 202

January 15, 1991: The First Gulf War 207

After Inauguration (excerpt) 208

Coda: Sutra 213

Acknowledgments 215

Editorial Reviews

In a voice absolutely her own—wild, earthy, irreverent, full of humor and surprise—Ostriker takes on nothing less than what it feels like to be alive.

Joan Larkin

These capacious poems are smart, passionate, witty, acutely observant, heart-stabbing. They contain multitudes, embracing both ‘hot beauty’ and ‘thick and magnificent rage,’ ‘the impulse to destroy’ and ‘the body...keen for pleasure again,’ along with a bounty of other precise nuances of thought and perception. Alicia Ostriker binds together the contradictions of our contemporary lives in an insistent music that does what all real poetry does—‘it becomes true.’

Ellen Bass

Alicia Ostriker continues to grapple with and celebrate the life of a woman—wife, mother, lover, friend, teacher, and citizen of the world. Because of her age, as well as the precariousness of our times, Ostriker seems to speak even more forcefully, as if a confrontation with ultimate loss has engendered a vibrant flowering. Her devotion to the physical world—to what gives beauty and value to our lives, to pleasure—for example, her candid and brilliant explorations of sex in old age. At 80, she proclaims, she hasn’t had her last sex—has always made her the rarest gift to readers who, like me, rely on poetry for example. And we have so few examples at this age! Elder stateswoman Ostriker forges ahead, more audacious and sure-footed than ever, invigorated by her task to take us with her all the way.

Toi Derricotte

This volume offers an engaging look at Ostriker’s long and rich career.

Publishers Weekly

These capacious poems are smart, passionate, witty, acutely observant, heart-stabbing. They contain multitudes, embracing both ‘hot beauty’ and ‘thick and magnificent rage,’ ‘the impulse to destroy’ and ‘the body . . . keen for pleasure again,’ along with a bounty of other precise nuances of thought and perception. Alicia Ostriker binds together the contradictions of our contemporary lives in an insistent music that does what all real poetry does—‘it becomes true.’”—Ellen Bass


 

“Alicia Ostriker continues to grapple with and celebrate the life of a woman—wife, mother, lover, friend, teacher, and citizen of the world. Because of her age, as well as the precariousness of our times, Ostriker seems to speak even more forcefully, as if a confrontation with ultimate loss has engendered a vibrant flowering. Her devotion to the physical world—to what gives beauty and value to our lives, to pleasure—for example, her candid and brilliant explorations of sex in old age. At 80, she proclaims, she hasn’t had her last sex—has always made her the rarest gift to readers who, like me, rely on poetry for example. And we have so few examples at this age!  Elder stateswoman Ostriker forges ahead, more audacious and sure-footed than ever, invigorated by her task to take us with her all the way.”—Toi Derricotte
 

“In a voice absolutely her own—wild, earthy, irreverent, full of humor and surprise—Ostriker takes on nothing less than what it feels like to be alive.”  —Joan Larkin

“This volume offers an engaging look at Ostriker’s long and rich career.” —Publishers Weekly
 

From the Publisher