The Floating Bridge: Prose Poems

by David Shumate

Overview

"Vanquishes once and for all the notion that the prose poem is somehow inherently 'not a real poem.' Exhibits a sustained level of innate lyricism and imagism rarely seen even in conventional lyric free verse. Unfailingly, the little prose jewels in 'The Floating Bridge' exhibit the most fundamental property of fine poems: each whole is many times greater than the sum of its parts." --Cider Press Review "Shumate's collection consists of over 50 gems...each one loaded with the living essence that hovers just beyond rationality's gate. [He] is a master of this forthright form. His book is a key to the room where dreams are stored." --Nuvo "I was deeply taken by David Shumate's The Floating Bridge. There is none better working now at this very difficult genre, the prose poem." --Jim Harrison

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822990765
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	01/27/2008
Series:	Pitt Poetry Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	88
File size:	234 KB

About the Author

David Shumate is the author of High Water Mark, winner of the 2003 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Atlanta Review, Mississippi Review, and Mid-American Review, among other publications. Shumate is poet-in-residence at Marian College in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Table of Contents

Contents Far Villages Manniquins Kafka The Next Village Big Brother Loses His Virginity Fresh Fish Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat Don Quixote Metaphors Translating a Poem The Overwhelming Sadness of the Earth Plum Wisdom The Orange Flags of Babylon The Orange Flags of Babylon Learning to Eat a Pomegranate The Yellow Bird Picasso The Headless Saints The Amateur Zen Master Trapped Inside of a Haiku Poem The Island of Nirvana Rain The Dreams of Children Trains The Long Road The Bible Belt The Bible Belt The Gods The Ladders of Purgatory Drawing Jesus Jesus's IQ Seduction The Jewish Ghetto Boarding the Bus to Gomorrah Om Zero Halo The House of Death Paris The Bedouins of Paris Spring in Paris Lucifer The Kissing Institute Pornography French Forign Legion Gertrude Stein's Gardener Dying Park The Gates of Paris An American in Paris Paris, USA The Floating Bridge The Floating Bridge Making a Forest A Visit with Dali North Wind Children's Book Illustrations, Circa 1890 Learning Italian Slowly A Poem I Wrote Thirty Years Ago Chinese Restaurant Welcome Home, Children The History of the Umbrella While I Sleep The Fish Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

“I was deeply taken by David Shumate’s The Floating Bridge.  There is none better working now at this very difficult genre, the prose poem.”
—Jim Harrison

"Shumate's collection consists of over 50 gems . . .  each one loaded with the living essence that hovers just beyond rationality's gate. Shumate is a master of this forthright form [prose poetry]. His book is a key to the room where dreams are stored."
--Nuvo

"David Shumate vanquishes once and for all the notion that the prose poem is somehow inherently 'not a real poem.' This collection exhibits a sustained level of innate lyricism and imaginism rarely seen even in conventional lyric free verse. Unfailingly, the little prose jewels in The Floating Bridge exhibit the most fundamental property of fine poems: each whole is many times greater than the sum of its parts."
--Cider Press Review

From the Publisher