University of Wisconsin Press, 1999 Cloth: 978-0-299-16520-8 | Paper: 978-0-299-16524-6 Library of Congress Classification PS3557.A8448F54 1999 Dewey Decimal Classification 811.54
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Frank X. Gaspar’s collection of poems is haunted by the presence of mystics and visionaries: Mohammed, Buddha, St. Paul, Augustine, George Herbert, Emily Dickinson, Blake, Milton, Rilke. A Field Guide to the Heavens is punctuated with designs of science, the wondering and rapt observations of the sky made at the eyepiece of a backyard telescope. We come to know Gaspar’s city streets, the neighbors and strangers that walk them, the wreckage of past lives, the ocean, the gardens, the orchards and alleys and parking lots, all spread out under the vast sky.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Frank X. Gaspar is associate professor of English at Long Beach City College, Long Beach, California, and is the author of two books of poems, The Holyoke and Mass for the Grace of a Happy Death. He also recently published his first novel, Leaving Pico.
REVIEWS
“In Frank Gaspar’s beautiful and exacting book, A Field Guide to the Heavens, is a compassed and sculptured map that leads to what is purely human. There aren’t any abstract angels here, only the breath of quest and raw life—from the symbolic gecko to the mythic Apostle Paul and Caesar. This collection is highly democratic and spiritual, where George Herbert is only a few pages away from Allen Ginsberg. Gaspar’s material is composed of the stuff we are made of: an approximation of the old, need-driven songs of the spirit and flesh shaped out of imagination and autobiography.”—Yusef Komunyakaa
"This poet is a good storyteller. He knows what will interest you, and he doesn't present himself as transcendental. . . . I like the way he talks about a dozen things in one poem."—Robert Bly
“Frank Gaspar has arrived, in this book, at an adult voice of startling presence and power, a voice at once humble and confident, doubting and authoritative . . . . he returns us to poetry’s perennial, inexhaustible power: the old verities of the self’s engagement with love and time, with meaning and chaos, are shaped here into something alive, something generous, selfless, and new.”—Mark Doty
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I.
Metropolis
A Field Guide to the Heavens
Dog Days
Metropolis
Now the Moon Is in the First Quarter
The Tree
I Work Late at My Table in Summer
First Epistle in June
July in the Street of Fevers
Psalms in August
The Lemons
George Herbert
Seven Roses
I See Men but They Look Like Trees Walking
Last Hymn to Night
II.
Jailhouse Tattoos
The Fire and the Rose
A Spell Against Ruin
September Tropical
Among the Quadi, on the River Gran
The Apostle Paul Disappears into a Crowd at Corinth
An Ark Cast into the Flags
Shook Foil
Part of What I Mean
Honokaa Town, Geckos Chirping, Deep Night, No Telescope
Delta Scuti
North
Barnard 352
The Lilies of the Field
What Good Are the Stars
III.
This Small Book of Days
This Small Book of Days
Lines Written Against the Day This Hand Will Tremble
A Witness Gives His Version
Moon by Night
Nox Erat et Caelo
I Am Refused Entry to the Harvard Poetry Library
February
Whiskey
Dream Talk
When Lilacs
Kapital
Small Prayer for the World Without Mercy on Us
Fortunate Rain, Lucky Star
The Standard Times
Education by Stone
Confessions
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Wisconsin Press, 1999 Cloth: 978-0-299-16520-8 Paper: 978-0-299-16524-6
Frank X. Gaspar’s collection of poems is haunted by the presence of mystics and visionaries: Mohammed, Buddha, St. Paul, Augustine, George Herbert, Emily Dickinson, Blake, Milton, Rilke. A Field Guide to the Heavens is punctuated with designs of science, the wondering and rapt observations of the sky made at the eyepiece of a backyard telescope. We come to know Gaspar’s city streets, the neighbors and strangers that walk them, the wreckage of past lives, the ocean, the gardens, the orchards and alleys and parking lots, all spread out under the vast sky.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Frank X. Gaspar is associate professor of English at Long Beach City College, Long Beach, California, and is the author of two books of poems, The Holyoke and Mass for the Grace of a Happy Death. He also recently published his first novel, Leaving Pico.
REVIEWS
“In Frank Gaspar’s beautiful and exacting book, A Field Guide to the Heavens, is a compassed and sculptured map that leads to what is purely human. There aren’t any abstract angels here, only the breath of quest and raw life—from the symbolic gecko to the mythic Apostle Paul and Caesar. This collection is highly democratic and spiritual, where George Herbert is only a few pages away from Allen Ginsberg. Gaspar’s material is composed of the stuff we are made of: an approximation of the old, need-driven songs of the spirit and flesh shaped out of imagination and autobiography.”—Yusef Komunyakaa
"This poet is a good storyteller. He knows what will interest you, and he doesn't present himself as transcendental. . . . I like the way he talks about a dozen things in one poem."—Robert Bly
“Frank Gaspar has arrived, in this book, at an adult voice of startling presence and power, a voice at once humble and confident, doubting and authoritative . . . . he returns us to poetry’s perennial, inexhaustible power: the old verities of the self’s engagement with love and time, with meaning and chaos, are shaped here into something alive, something generous, selfless, and new.”—Mark Doty
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I.
Metropolis
A Field Guide to the Heavens
Dog Days
Metropolis
Now the Moon Is in the First Quarter
The Tree
I Work Late at My Table in Summer
First Epistle in June
July in the Street of Fevers
Psalms in August
The Lemons
George Herbert
Seven Roses
I See Men but They Look Like Trees Walking
Last Hymn to Night
II.
Jailhouse Tattoos
The Fire and the Rose
A Spell Against Ruin
September Tropical
Among the Quadi, on the River Gran
The Apostle Paul Disappears into a Crowd at Corinth
An Ark Cast into the Flags
Shook Foil
Part of What I Mean
Honokaa Town, Geckos Chirping, Deep Night, No Telescope
Delta Scuti
North
Barnard 352
The Lilies of the Field
What Good Are the Stars
III.
This Small Book of Days
This Small Book of Days
Lines Written Against the Day This Hand Will Tremble
A Witness Gives His Version
Moon by Night
Nox Erat et Caelo
I Am Refused Entry to the Harvard Poetry Library
February
Whiskey
Dream Talk
When Lilacs
Kapital
Small Prayer for the World Without Mercy on Us
Fortunate Rain, Lucky Star
The Standard Times
Education by Stone
Confessions
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE