What do you think?
The Night We're Not Sleeping In
"Reading these poems is an uncanny experience. . . . We enter into this book alert to possibility, and leave knowing how asleep we've been."—Nick Flynn
Of all the meanings of exposed I think my favorite
is the raw nerve shivering bug-like in the lamp light
while the surgeon arranges his dainty knives.
You can get close to that. You can brush
its wriggling limb and hear the scream.
You can lie there on the table, say,
"little nerve oh nerve it'll
be all right; there
there, there there.
Of all the meanings of exposed I think my favorite
is the raw nerve shivering bug-like in the lamp light
while the surgeon arranges his dainty knives.
You can get close to that. You can brush
its wriggling limb and hear the scream.
You can lie there on the table, say,
"little nerve oh nerve it'll
be all right; there
there, there there.
- GenresPoetry
65 pages, Paperback
First published November 11, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 16, 2015
Breathtaking in its sadness and beauty. The ending gave me chills. This is not a book I will be able to take my hands off of any time soon. It requires too many re-reads.
February 16, 2015
Admittedly one of the few poetry books I've read this year, but the best nonetheless. Intimate and personal, but never ordinary. Erudite without seeming rarified.
February 16, 2015
Fantastically rich, dark, and memorable.
August 11, 2019
4.5 stars
Read the brief foreword by Susan Mitchell. "The Night We're Not Sleeping In is not a book that will comfort. Like all great art, it will disturb and provoke its readers" is what I took with me as I entered the language, and I leave the work believing that is an accurate assessment.
If you are thinking about writing multiple poems that could gather to become a series/sequence, this is a great collection to turn to. I meant to return to a few sequences I've thought of, but haven't written--and this is probably the inspiration to push me into that.
The Adam poems, "Secret Fellow Sufferers," and general father poems built this collection. I was pleased to read it. And I read it as a library e-book on my laptop (not a fan of reading .pdfs), BUT this was worth reading in that format just to be able to read it.
Read the brief foreword by Susan Mitchell. "The Night We're Not Sleeping In is not a book that will comfort. Like all great art, it will disturb and provoke its readers" is what I took with me as I entered the language, and I leave the work believing that is an accurate assessment.
If you are thinking about writing multiple poems that could gather to become a series/sequence, this is a great collection to turn to. I meant to return to a few sequences I've thought of, but haven't written--and this is probably the inspiration to push me into that.
The Adam poems, "Secret Fellow Sufferers," and general father poems built this collection. I was pleased to read it. And I read it as a library e-book on my laptop (not a fan of reading .pdfs), BUT this was worth reading in that format just to be able to read it.
May 11, 2017
Loved this collection by Bishop and it's several mini-focuses-- reworkings of Adam, the Secret Fellow Sufferers. At once tender and clever, Bishops integration of wordplay and narrative is admirable. So too, the ordinary and the surreal, which pops up, at the right time to weird-ify and bolster these densely packed poems.
August 29, 2018
These poems hold so much grief they make your heart hurt. Beautifully expressed.
January 19, 2015
One brilliant line: "and the moon sags like a tit o'er the meadows..."
February 16, 2015
The poetry lives up to the gorgeous cover art.
April 15, 2016
These poems are pretty good, but the collection opens a lot stronger than it ends, I think. I'd definitely read more by this poet, though.
April 20, 2016
Every page swept me off my feet with a punch to the gut.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews