<![CDATA[Special Orders: Poems]]>

false <![CDATA[Special Orders: Poems]]> 2302160 1 In Special Orders, the renowned poet Edward Hirsch brings us a new series of tightly crafted poems, work that demonstrates a thrilling expansion of his tone and subject matter. It is with a mixture of grief and joy that Hirsch examines what he calls “the minor triumphs, the major failures” of his life so far, in lines that reveal a startling frankness in the man composing them, a fearlessness in confronting his own internal divisions: “I lived between my heart and my head, / like a married couple who can’t get along,” he writes in “Self-portrait.” These poems constitute a profound, sometimes painful self-examination, by the end of which the poet marvels at the sense of expectancy and transformation he feels. His fifteen-year-old son walking on Broadway is a fledgling about to sail out over the treetops; he has a new love, passionately described in “I Wish I Could Paint You”; he is ready to live, he tells us, “solitary, bittersweet, and utterly free.” More personal than any of his previous collections, Special Orders is Edward Hirsch’s most significant book to date. The highway signs pointed to our happiness; the greasy spoons and gleaming truck stops were the stations of our pilgrimage. Wasn’t that us staggering past the riverboats, eating homemade fudge at the county fair and devouring each other’s body? They come back to me now, delicious love, the times my sad heart knew a little sweetness. from “The Sweetness” 2308566 11 3 2008 Special Orders: Poems total:22|5:9|4:8|3:5|2:0|1:0| 22 92 43 5 4 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 11:29:52 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 11:40:21 -0700 2008
The tone is usually of sadness ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 24 14:28:30 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 22:51:39 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 14:28:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 11:45:48 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 12:14:52 -0700 2009 sits on your
chest
happily hugging itself
and deeply leering.
Let it--
instead--
become a great stone,
something real:
a heavy
and wondrous
companion.]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 30 08:34:01 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 30 14:05:29 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon May 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 22:38:03 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 22:39:44 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Tue Nov 10 17:08:28 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 19:46:06 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 17:08:28 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Oct 05 21:46:03 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 17:06:30 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 21:46:03 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Aug 12 19:13:33 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 19:13:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jul 22 12:54:48 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 12:55:07 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun May 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 08:27:02 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 08:27:02 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed May 20 07:47:42 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 07:47:44 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat May 16 22:31:38 -0700 2009 Sat May 16 22:31:38 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Apr 30 10:00:30 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 10:00:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Apr 16 08:34:18 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 08:34:18 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Apr 09 07:58:48 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 07:58:48 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Mar 27 14:17:06 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 14:17:06 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 15 07:04:35 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 07:04:45 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Mar 12 16:53:24 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 16:53:37 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Mar 08 20:52:01 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 08 20:52:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Mar 01 22:04:32 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 08 20:35:05 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2302160