Once: Poems

By Meghan O'Rourke

Book Overview

The incandescent poems in Once explore violence, loss, and recovery. Invoking both the personal and the civic self, they chart uncertain new beginnings in a shattered nation. What emerges is both a poignant meditation on a daughter's relationship with her mother and a citizen's relationship to her country.

from "Frontier"
. . . At times,
I felt sick, intoxicated
by BPA and mercury.
At other times I fasted and the stars
stumbled clear from the vault.
Up there, the universe stands around drunk.
I hope the Lord is kind to us,
for we engrave our every mistake . . .

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393080625
• ISBN13: 9780393080629
• Release Date: October 2011
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 89 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 0.5" x 5.9"