The Dean of Discipline

by Michael Waters

Overview

In the richly musical and boldly imaginative poems of The Dean of Discipline, Michael Waters explores the confluences of the sensual and the spiritual, and renders their mysteries with precision and clarity. The title evokes the rigorous consciousness that prods the artist to deepen into his craft. Line by line, Waters delivers the passionate eloquence and intensity that distinguish his poems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822965268
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	02/13/2018
Series:	Pitt Poetry Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Michael Waters’s books of poetry include Celestial Joyride, Gospel Night, Darling Vulgarity, and Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems. He is the coeditor of Reel Verse: Poems about the Movies, Contemporary American Poetry, and Perfect in Their Art: Poems on Boxing from Homer to Ali. He has chaired the poetry panel for the National Book Awards. Recipient of five Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Waters is professor of English at Monmouth University and Visiting Distinguished Professor in the Drew University MFA program.

Table of Contents

→

Novae 5

Cad 6

The Argument 7

Madam Marie 8

Cannibal 10

Iesire → 11

Swamp Orchid 12

Ecstasy 13

Friends Have Made Love in Strange Spaces 15

Treasure Attic 16

Arrival 17

Remember, Body … 18

Postscript to Remember, Body … 19

Synesthesia 20

→

Transmigration 23

Currier and Ives 25

Catechism 26

Pass-the-Plate 27

Classic Cocktail 29

Detention 30

Psychological Sit-up 31

McSorley's (1969) 33

The Bookshelf 34

The Deadwood 35

Cautionary Tale 36

My Mourners 40

→

Performance Artist 43

Misterioso 45

Karakul 46

Zeus, Cyclops, Plato, Gaia … 48

Plein Air and Resurrectionist (1880) 49

Duchamp 50

Agnes Martin 51

Jacquard 52

Genealogy 54

Sophie Rose 55

Sachsenhausen 56

White Fields 57

→

Poetry 61

Notes 63

Acknowledgments 67

Editorial Reviews

Michael Waters is the ablest poet of an able generation.

Gettysburg Review Floyd Collins

The Dean of Discipline's absorbing subject is the making of art, showing and teaching us a poet's meticulous and raucous devotion so that we gain a sound and sense of how the poems are, in fact, created.

The Georgia Review

Past praise for Michael Waters:
Waters stands among the best American poets writing today.

San Antonio Express-News - Roberto Bonazzi

Waters’ pleasure in the figurative and musical possibilities of language is evident again and again.

Stand (UK) - Tony Roberts

"The Dean of Discipline...never swerves from looking to language to explore universal longings through the particularities of human experience."

The Widening Spell Terry Lucas

Past praise for Michael Waters:

“Waters stands among the best American poets writing today.” —Roberto Bonazzi, San Antonio Express-News
 


Past praise for Michael Waters:

"Waters’ pleasure in the figurative and musical possibilities of language is evident again and again." —Tony Roberts, Stand (UK)


"The Dean of Discipline's absorbing subject is the making of art, showing and teaching us a poet's meticulous and raucous devotion so that we gain a sound and sense of how the poems are, in fact, created." —The Georgia Review 


"Michael Waters is the ablest poet of an able generation." —Floyd Collins, Gettysburg Review 


"The Dean of Discipline...never swerves from looking to language to explore universal longings through the particularities of human experience." —Terry Lucas, The Widening Spell

From the Publisher