Trace: A Journey through Memory, History, Race and the American Land

Description

His arresting ninth collection of poems, Eric Pankey's Trace locates itself at a threshold between faith and doubt?between the visible and the invisible, the say-able and the ineffable, the physical and the metaphysical. Also a map of the poet's journey into a deep depression, these poems confront one man's struggle to overcome depression's smothering weight and presence. And with remarkable clarity and complexity, Trace charts the poet's attempt to be inspired, to breathe again, to give breath and life to words. Ever solemn, ever existential, Pankey's poems find us at our. Read more... Abstract: His arresting ninth collection of poems, Eric Pankey's Trace locates itself at a threshold between faith and doubt?between the visible and the invisible, the say-able and the ineffable, the physical and the metaphysical. Also a map of the poet's journey into a deep depression, these poems confront one man's struggle to overcome depression's smothering weight and presence. And with remarkable clarity and complexity, Trace charts the poet's attempt to be inspired, to breathe again, to give breath and life to words. Ever solemn, ever existential, Pankey's poems find us at our Content: I. The Sacrifice A Bird Loose in the House The Place of Skulls Prayer Edge of Things The Calling of the Elect to Heaven Ritual The Truth of Scripture The Creation of Adam As of Yet Works and Days Primitive Water Models of Paradise II. The Burning House Moon Phases Carved on a Bone Southern Elegy Cogitatio Mortis Out-of-the-Body The Repeated Image A Stone to Place on a Cairn Archaic Reverie Trace Objects and Mementos A Line Made by Walking The Passing Moment The Last Word III. Cold Mountain Meditations Bluffs Above the Missouri. The Dead Go Down to the Stygian WatersWaking Hungover in a Field, 1979 Diptych with Fox and Hawk Throne of the Ancestors The House We Left Behind Six Cast Hexagrams Anhedonia Distances To Dwell in Thought Sober Then Drunk Again Acknowledgments.