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The Emperor of Water Clocks: Poems


Publishing Details

Full Title:

The Emperor of Water Clocks: Poems

Contributors:

By (Author) Yusef Komunyakaa

ISBN:

9780374536572

Publisher:

Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc

Imprint:

Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc

Publication Date:

4th October 2016

Country:

United States

Classifications

Readership:

Professional and Scholarly

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Other Subjects:

Literary studies: poetry and poets

Dewey:

811.54

Physical Properties

Number of Pages:

128

Dimensions:

Width 128mm, Height 205mm, Spine 10mm

Weight:

154g

Description

"If I am not Ulysses, I am / his dear, ruthless half brother." So announces Yusef Komunyakaa early in his lush new collection, The Emperor of Water Clocks. And Ulysses (or his half brother) is but one of the characters Komunyakaa conjures over the course of this densely lyrical book. Here his speaker observes a doomed court jester; here another recalls Napoleon as the emperor "tells the doctor to cut out his heart / & send it to the empress, Marie-Louise"; and here he is just a man, reflecting on why he'd "rather die a poet / than a warrior." Through these mutations and migrations and permutations and peregrinations, there are constants: Komunyakaa's jazz-inflected rhythms, his effortlessly surreal images, his celebration of natural beauty and of love. There is also his insistent inquiry into the structures and struggles of power: not only, say, of king against jester but of man against his own desire, and of the present against the pernicious influence of the past. Another brilliant collection from the man David Wojahn has called one of our "most significant and individual voices," The Emperor of Water Clocks delights, challenges, and satisfies.

Reviews

"A rich, multilayered book that combines threads of fable, literature, music and cultural references to create a new kind of mythology." --Elizabeth Lund, The Washington Post

"Yusef Komunyakaa is one of our period's most significant and individual voices . . . He has a near-revelatory capacity to give himself over to his subject matter and to the taut concision of his free verse . . . Dazzling." --David Wojahn, Poetry on Yusef Komunyakaa

"Probably my favorite living poet. No one else taught me more about how important it was to think about how words make people feel. It's not enough for people to know something is true. They have to feel it's true." --Ta-Nehisi Coates, The New York Times Style Magazine

Author Bio

Yusef Komunyakaa's books of poetry include Neon Vernacular (for which he received the Pulitzer Prize),Talking Dirty to the Gods, Taboo, Warhorses, The Chameleon Couch, and Testimony: A Tribute to Charlie Parker. His plays, performance art, and librettos have been performed internationally and include Wakonda's Dream, Saturnalia, Testimony, and Gilgamesh: A Verse Play. He teaches at New York University.

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