false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183300229m/1398857.jpg 947138 2 Winner of the Levis Reading Prize "Tell me a story / of speed and tell it to me fast for the light is / gaining and I will wake and with this body / break the barrier between what I dream / and what my dreaming means." Sometimes a fact swings down like a hammer and we are changed. The fact of loss, the fact of desire, and all the wild, unruly facts of history hammer down and sparks fly up. This, then, is a collection of facts. In a rushing, rolling style, poems sweep to the edge of falling apart, take great delight in defying that dissolution, and come upon a thing redemptive and clarifying: the fact of love. In a world that "doesn't really care / whether we live or die," Steve Scafidi writes, "tell it you do and why." Against the harrowing fact of death, Scafidi celebrates dream and desire and the sweet erotics of springtime. Witnessing the budding of muscle trees, the nakedness of a lover, and the furious plowing of a river in the month of April amounts to a sensual equivalent of hope. And yet, the facts of history - from Troy to Rome to Montgomery, Alabama - arouse a great dread of our own cruelties. The truth of the South, the poems show, is often a brutal mix of ignorance and force that America learned from the great classical civilizations. From the unthinkable to the quietly heroic, somehow we have emerged. Sparks from a Nine-Pound Hammer celebrates that fact most of all. 932063 1 4 2001 Sparks from a Nine-Pound Hammer: Poems (Southern Messenger Poets) total:36|5:21|4:11|3:4|2:0|1:0| 36 161 47 2 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Tue Dec 08 06:00:02 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 07 12:20:46 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 08 06:00:02 -0800 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Wed Jul 25 16:23:45 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 25 16:25:56 -0700 2007 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 0 0 false Fri Oct 02 14:24:37 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 14:24:47 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 0 0 false Wed Sep 16 19:46:53 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 19:46:53 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Fri Sep 11 06:33:31 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 06:33:31 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 0 0 false Sun Sep 06 20:00:40 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 20:00:40 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 0 0 false Wed Aug 12 09:00:12 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 09:00:12 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 4 0 false Sun Jul 12 19:04:52 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 19:04:52 -0700 2009 1398857 0807126934 9780807126936 12 0 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183300229m/1398857.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1398857.Sparks_from_a_Nine_pound_Hammer 0 0 false Sun Jun 28 17:23:26 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 17:23:26 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Thu May 07 14:24:10 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 14:24:10 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 4 0 false Sat Apr 11 15:05:28 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 15:05:28 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 4 0 false Mon Mar 30 17:00:32 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 17:00:32 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 0 0 false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 14 16:46:44 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 16:46:53 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Thu Feb 19 19:00:57 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 19:00:57 -0800 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Sat Jan 03 21:17:01 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 21:17:01 -0800 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Sun Dec 07 20:44:49 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 20:45:23 -0800 2008 1398857 0807126934 9780807126936 12 0 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183300229m/1398857.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1398857.Sparks_from_a_Nine_pound_Hammer 0 0 false Wed Nov 26 22:15:13 -0800 2008 Sat Oct 17 18:06:28 -0700 2009 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Fri Aug 15 10:02:18 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 15 10:02:18 -0700 2008 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 5 0 false Mon Jul 07 18:03:28 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 07 18:03:28 -0700 2008 947138 0807126942 9780807126943 24 2 4.47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179702876m/947138.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947138.Sparks_from_a_Nine_Pound_Hammer_Poems 4 0 false Thu Jun 26 13:40:39 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 13:40:39 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1398857