A series of semi-mythologized, symbolic narratives interspersed with dramatic monologues, the poems collected in The City, Our City showcase the voice of a young poet striking out, dramatically, emphatically, to stake his claim on "the City." It is...
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A series of semi-mythologized, symbolic narratives interspersed with dramatic monologues, the poems collected in The City, Our City showcase the voice of a young poet striking out, dramatically, emphatically, to stake his claim on "the City." It is an unnamed, crowded place where the human questions and observations found in almost any city-past, present, and future-ring out with urgency. These poems-in turn elegiac, celebratory, haunting, grave, and joyful-give hum to our modern experience, to those caught up in "the City"'s immensity, and announce the arrival of a major new contemporary poet Intro -- Contents -- A Prayer (O City-) -- I -- Dear Auden, -- The Feast -- II -- Flooding the Valley -- Street Fight -- A History of Art -- III -- A History of War -- Identifying the Body -- IV -- I've Heard that Outside the City -- The Death of the Frontier -- Winter Pastoral -- V -- The Assassination Lecture -- The Beautiful City (in 32 Strokes) -- In the Museum: A Pastoral -- VI -- American Aubade -- American Nocturne -- VII -- The Dead Moor Speaks -- Silence in the City -- VIII -- Poem Slipped betweenTwo Lines by Vallejo -- Nothing in the Letters: An Elegy -- Report from the Dying District -- IX -- Those Boys -- The Wall -- A Treatise on Power (in 32 Strokes) -- X -- In the Ba rracks: A Found Poem -- Bombing the City -- XI -- [The child's cry is a light that comes on in the house] -- After the Fever: A Pastoral -- XII -- The Rescue -- Archeology -- XIII -- CPR -- Our Last Visit -- XIV -- Notes/Sources -- Acknowledgments -- Wayne Miller
