We Slept the Animal

by George Kalamaras

Overview

Poetry. "WE SLEPT THE ANIMAL is one of the most intensely populated books since Whitman—and yet, 'We are made / in the image of loss,' Kalamaras reminds us in 'Letter to Eric from Cripple Creek.' Like the Richard Hugo book which is precursor, we find poems and letters here, but addressed to a wider range, a vaster group of Americans, living and dead and to come. I know of no other book with this generosity, with this ambition so divested of ego. 'I know what it's been to step west,' Kalamaras admits, as The Rocky Mountain West, indeed the country as a whole, become populations engaged with complexity and love. There is mourning here, but even more celebration."—Bin Ramke

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953252081
Publisher:	Dos Madres Press
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	206
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

George Kalamaras, former Poet Laureate of Indiana (2014- 2016), is Professor of English at Purdue University Fort Wayne (formerly Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne), where he has taught since 1990. His ten books of poetry include LUMINOUS IN THE OWL'S RIB (Dos Madres Press, 2019), KINGDOM OF THROAT-STUCK LUCK (2011), winner of the Elixir Press Poetry Prize, The Theory and Function of Mangoes (2000), winner of the Four Way Books Intro Series, GOLD CARP JACK FRUIT MIRRORS (The Bitter Oleander Press, 2008), EVEN THE JAVA SPARROWS CALL YOUR NAME (Quale Press, 2004), and WE SLEPT THE ANIMAL (Dos Madres Press, 2021). He has also published seven poetry chapbooks and a book of critical theory, Reclaiming the Tacit Dimension: Symbolic Form in the Rhetoric of Silence (State University of New York Press, 1994). He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1993) and two Individual Artist Fellowships from the Indiana Arts Commission (2011 and 2001). During 1994, he spent several months in India on an Indo-U.S. Advanced Research Fellowship. He lives with his wife, writer Mary Ann Cain, and their beagle, Bootsie, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Table of Contents

The How and Why They Died

Colorado Sheep Wars, 1894 1

All the Words We Have Bound and Gagged

Letter to Juan from North Platte 5

Letter to Joe from Durango 8

Letter to Robert from Ridgway 10

Letter to Phil [Appleman] from Manitou Springs 12

Letter to Arthur from Ault 14

Letter to Bill [Ryan] from Wellington 17

Letter to Patrick from Fort Collins 18

Letter to Tom from Stove Prairie 22

Letter to Don from Gunbarrel 24

Letter to Hugo from Nowhere 26

House of Green Buffalo Hides

House of Green Buffalo Hides. Slabs of Hump at Right, North Montana, January 1882 31

The Hobble-Sound of Now

Letter to John [Haines] I Neglected to Send, So Am Finally Sending Now, Twenty-Two Years Late 37

Letter to Judy from Colorado Springs 41

Letter to Ray from Livermore 43

Letter to Nate from Steamboat Springs 45

Letter to Mary [Crow] from the Snow of Buffalo Bones on the Laramie Plains 48

Letter to Reg from Cheyenne 51

Letter to Eric from Cripple Creek 53

Letter to John [Olson] from Denver 56

Letter to Larry from Bellvue 58

What Thou Lovest Well. Letter to Hugo from Big Timber 61

Belating the Butchered Herd

Belating the Butchered Herd 67

Good Long Animal Luck of Being Alive

Letter to Marie from Fort Garland 75

Letter to Jim [Harrison] from Rifle 77

Snow on the Backs of Animals. Letter to Dan from Centennial 80

Letter to Andrew from Livingston 82

Letter to Alvaro from San Luis 84

Letter to Tremblay from Tie Siding 88

Letter to Sam from Crow Agency 91

Letter to Megan from Rifle 94

The Branch Will Not Break Letter to Kevin from Livermore 97

Letter to Hugo from Cowdry 100

Zebra Hide of the Heart

Dead Skunk 105

Little Infinite Poem

Letter to Bill [Stafford] from Fort Collins (Just Back from Poison) 109

Little Infinite Poem, Or Letter to Bob from Everywhere at Once 111

Letter to Sue from Durango 115

Letter to Roger from Gunnison 119

Letter to Lisa from the In-Between 122

Letter to John [Zimmerman] from Bellvue 124

Letter to Jim [Grabill] from Boulder 127

Letter to Gerrit from Aurora 128

Letter to John [Tritica] from Ouray 130

Letter to Tony from Cheyenne Wells 133

Letter to Hugo from Kicking Horse Reservoir 136

All the Patience of Broth

Dejected in Boulder, I Think of James Wright's "Depressed by a Book of Bad Poetry, I Walk Toward an Unused Pasture and Invite the Insects to Join Me" 141

The Brahms-Bitten. The Sweet

Letter to Forrest from Laramie 145

Letter to the Mikautadze Dance Troupe from Livermore 147

Letter to Noah from Castle Rock 150

Letter to Jay from Boulder 152

Letter to Phil [Woods] from Red Feather Lakes 154

Letter to Michelle from Victor 156

Letter to Paul from Timnath 160

Letter to Kent from Fort Wayne 162

Saidshaft. Letter to Mary [Rising Higgins] from Albuquerque 166

I'm Writing Gene a Letter 168

We Slept the Animal

Below Buffalo Willows 173

Notes 175

About the Author 181