Imperial

by George Bilgere

Overview

In Imperial, George Bilgere’s sixth collection of poetry, he continues his exploration of the beauties, mysteries, and absurdities of being middle-aged and middle-class in mid-America. In poems that range from the Cold War anxieties of the 1950s to the perils and predicaments of an aging Boomer in a post-9/11 world, Bilgere’s rueful humor and slippery syntax become a trapdoor that at any moment can plunge the reader into the abyss. In Bilgere’s world a yo-yo morphs into an emblem for the atomic bomb. A spot of cancer flames into the Vietnam War. And the death of a baseball player reminds us, in this age of disbelief, of the importance—the necessity—of myth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822962687
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	01/21/2014
Series:	Pitt Poetry Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	72
Sales rank:	968,088
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

George Bilgere is professor of English literature at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the author of seven collections of poetry and has received grants and awards from the Fulbright Foundation, the Pushcart Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Witter Bynner Foundation through the Library of Congress, the May Swenson Poetry Award, the Society of Midland Authors award, and the Cleveland Arts Prize. He spends his summers in Berlin, Germany, but lives during the academic year in Cleveland with his wife and two sons.

Table of Contents

As Requested 1

Scorcher 2

Musial 3

Yard Sale 5

The Return of Odysseus 6

Jane 7

Traverse City 9

Darkly Shifting Flux 10

Norwood 12

Attic Shapes 13

Arcadia 15

Bus Boy 17

Tenure 18

Mexican Town 19

Imperial 20

Journal 22

Lobsters 23

Coupons 26

Desire 27

Hoses 28

Problem 29

Black Box 30

Far from Afghanistan 32

Lint 33

Robert Frost 34

Treptower Park, Berlin 35

Fly Balls 36

You Asked For It 37

Jazz 38

Genius 39

Whales 40

Basal Cell 41

Venus Transit Party 42

Eighty Yards 43

Royalty 44

The Wading Pool 46

iPoem 47

Prostate Exam 48

Faculty Lounge 49

One Good Pork Chop 50

Airport 52

Cyclists 53

Indistinct Banquet 54

Namaste 56

The Prostitutes of Amsterdam 57

Walking the Dog 58

Mile Marker 17, Outside Calumet, OK 59

Weather 60

Acknowledgments 61

Editorial Reviews

In Imperial, George Bilgere gives us the 'shared mystery / of being human / on this dark little planet,' with the perfect pacing and wicked aplomb of a comic raconteur. His wry observations of people—at home, in the neighborhood, at the university—purr with buttered irony. And then we feel the claws below the charm, and deeper beneath that, a sadness that won't be laughed away.

Elton Glaser

Cheeky nephew of Billy Collins, brash blunt brother of Tony Hoagland, George Bilgere writes the poetry of frontal candor about desire, nostalgia, and sweet sad vanity. He's not just easy but defiantly easy to read. The rest of us professor poet guys maybe better give up writing funny-ruefully about our typical lucky lives, because Bilgere has the territory so well covered.

Mark Halliday

His lines possess the easy, colloquial rhythm of prose and imagist glint of good poetry. . . .In his best poems, such as 'Desire' and 'Ttraverse City', one tumbles through the lines to an ending that is surprising, funny or breath-stopping, sometimes all at once.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Concerned with life's smallest and largest questions, Imperial scans the past for clues of how best to navigate the future. Tracing the arc of the Baby Boomer generation from cradle to grave, Bilgere's poems paint a picture of American life that is equal parts sadness, matter-of-fact-ness, and hilarity. Their ability to incorporate humor is both surprising and fresh—especially as they tackle subjects such as aging, suburban routine, and the rise and subsequent fall of post-WWII America.

Dorianne Laux

Bilgere's 'Imperial' gives me a rare pleasure; poems as open as windows. Filled with humor, love, and pain these poems are learned but not ostentatiously so. Think Garrison Keillor and Ted Kooser, both of whom have showcased many of Bilgere's poems, and you will recognize the key of this poet's clear, sincere, friendly yet serious voice. . . . Even as they engage moments that sometimes sting, Bilgere's poems convey respect for human vulnerability and, above all, a sense of love. Even the poems about loss give us page after page of radiant moments.

Ghost Town LIterary Magazine

"His lines possess the easy, colloquial rhythm of prose and imagist glint of good poetry. . . .In his best poems, such as 'Desire' and ‘Ttraverse City', one tumbles through the lines to an ending that is surprising, funny or breath-stopping, sometimes all at once."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
 


"Bilgere's 'Imperial' gives me a rare pleasure; poems as open as windows. Filled with humor, love, and pain these poems are learned but not ostentatiously so. Think Garrison Keillor and Ted Kooser, both of whom have showcased many of Bilgere's poems, and you will recognize the key of this poet's clear, sincere, friendly yet serious voice. . . . Even as they engage moments that sometimes sting, Bilgere's poems convey respect for human vulnerability and, above all, a sense of love. Even the poems about loss give us page after page of radiant moments."
—Ghost Town LIterary Magazine


“Concerned with life’s smallest and largest questions, Imperial scans the past for clues of how best to navigate the future. Tracing the arc of the Baby Boomer generation from cradle to grave, Bilgere’s poems paint a picture of American life that is equal parts sadness, matter-of-fact-ness, and hilarity. Their ability to incorporate humor is both surprising and fresh—especially as they tackle subjects such as aging, suburban routine, and the rise and subsequent fall of post-WWII America.”
—Dorianne Laux


“Cheeky nephew of Billy Collins, brash blunt brother of Tony Hoagland, George Bilgere writes the poetry of frontal candor about desire, nostalgia, and sweet sad vanity. He’s not just easy but defiantly easy to read. The rest of us professor poet guys maybe better give up writing funny-ruefully about our typical lucky lives, because Bilgere has the territory so well covered.”
—Mark Halliday


“In Imperial, George Bilgere gives us the ‘shared mystery / of being human / on this dark little planet,’ with the perfect pacing and wicked aplomb of a comic raconteur. His wry observations of people—at home, in the neighborhood, at the university—purr with buttered irony. And then we feel the claws below the charm, and deeper beneath that, a sadness that won’t be laughed away.”
—Elton Glaser

From the Publisher