Afterswarm
“You fetch / the daily things. You go on. There’s nothing else to do.”

In Afterswarm, Margot Schilpp reveals and revels in the deep comfort we take in the common objects, people, and circumstances of our lives. She draws our attention back to those that have grown invisible in their familiarity, asking us to pause and weigh the significance of what we regularly encounter. The poems in this volume question and insist, return and twist, and ultimately point us toward the grace we can find in what’s often overlooked.

Afterswarm is a collection of powerful, sometimes kaleidoscopic meditations on the human condition in a universe akin to Stephen Crane’s, one which has ‘no sense of obligation’ for our existence. The trials of mutability, heartbreak, alienation, and mundanity are met with stoical tenacity (and, occasionally, wry humor) while ‘shimmerings’ of beauty and love are ‘syncopated against loss.’ These poems strike deep. And Schilpp’s unembellished eloquence, musician’s ear, and eye for evocative detail energize every page of this extraordinary book.”—William Trowbridge, author of Vanishing Point
1129915301
Afterswarm
“You fetch / the daily things. You go on. There’s nothing else to do.”

In Afterswarm, Margot Schilpp reveals and revels in the deep comfort we take in the common objects, people, and circumstances of our lives. She draws our attention back to those that have grown invisible in their familiarity, asking us to pause and weigh the significance of what we regularly encounter. The poems in this volume question and insist, return and twist, and ultimately point us toward the grace we can find in what’s often overlooked.

Afterswarm is a collection of powerful, sometimes kaleidoscopic meditations on the human condition in a universe akin to Stephen Crane’s, one which has ‘no sense of obligation’ for our existence. The trials of mutability, heartbreak, alienation, and mundanity are met with stoical tenacity (and, occasionally, wry humor) while ‘shimmerings’ of beauty and love are ‘syncopated against loss.’ These poems strike deep. And Schilpp’s unembellished eloquence, musician’s ear, and eye for evocative detail energize every page of this extraordinary book.”—William Trowbridge, author of Vanishing Point
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Afterswarm

Afterswarm

by Margot Schilpp
Afterswarm

Afterswarm

by Margot Schilpp

Paperback(1st Edition)

$15.95 
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Overview

“You fetch / the daily things. You go on. There’s nothing else to do.”

In Afterswarm, Margot Schilpp reveals and revels in the deep comfort we take in the common objects, people, and circumstances of our lives. She draws our attention back to those that have grown invisible in their familiarity, asking us to pause and weigh the significance of what we regularly encounter. The poems in this volume question and insist, return and twist, and ultimately point us toward the grace we can find in what’s often overlooked.

Afterswarm is a collection of powerful, sometimes kaleidoscopic meditations on the human condition in a universe akin to Stephen Crane’s, one which has ‘no sense of obligation’ for our existence. The trials of mutability, heartbreak, alienation, and mundanity are met with stoical tenacity (and, occasionally, wry humor) while ‘shimmerings’ of beauty and love are ‘syncopated against loss.’ These poems strike deep. And Schilpp’s unembellished eloquence, musician’s ear, and eye for evocative detail energize every page of this extraordinary book.”—William Trowbridge, author of Vanishing Point

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780887486494
Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University Press
Publication date: 02/15/2019
Edition description: 1st Edition
Pages: 64
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Margot Schilpp teaches at Southern Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac University. She is the author of four earlier volumes of poetry, including Afterswarm. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut with her husband Jeff Mock, and two daughters, Paula and Leah.

Table of Contents

Hover 9

1

Poem to the Sound of an Opening Door 13

Seize the Day 14

In One Ear and Gone Tomorrow 16

Five Miles Uphill, There and Back 17

Dragonflies 18

Poem for the Will 20

Nomenclature: Sundays 23

OCD 25

Last Spring 27

Night 28

Lepomis macrochirus 29

A Translation 32

Untitled Poem to My Daughters, Attempt #39 34

Visitation at the Automat 35

Mastery of Smoky Shadows 36

2

Transit Authority 39

Meditation on the Elements: Simultaneity 40

Arts and Crafts on Venus 45

Decorah, Iowa: Night and Day on the Nest 46

The de Havilland Comets 47

A Version 48

Leaving a Marriage 49

Courage 50

The Deep End 51

My Version of Physics 53

Elegy for a Former Self Who Misunderstood the Nature of Time, Space, and Everything Else 54

Grief 56

Pygmalion Effect 57

Transplant 58

Omega 59

40°30'07"N 114°01'56"W 61

Till It's Gone 62

Afterswarm 63

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