Be With (poetry collection) explained

Italic Title:Be With
Be With
Author:Forrest Gander
Country:United States of America
Genre:Poetry
Publisher:New Directions Press
Pub Date:2018
Isbn:0811226050

Be With (2018), published by New Directions, is the tenth collection of poems written by Forrest Gander. The book won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and was longlisted for a 2018 National Book Award.[1] [2] The collection is, in part, an elegy for poet C. D. Wright to whom Gander had been married since 1986 and who passed unexpectedly in 2016.[3] [4] The title of Be With comes from the dedication of ShallCross, a collection of poems by Wright published posthumously.[5] Gander eventually stopped doing public readings from Be With over personal concerns with performing his grief.[6] The design for the 2018 print of the collection was done by art designer Sasha Veryovka.[7]

Description and Overview

The poems of Be With orbit several topics, most notably the death of Gander's wife, but also the mysticism of St. John of the Cross, the history of the U.S. border with Mexico, and his mother's Alzheimer's disease.[8]

The collection begins with an epigraph from the poem "The World" by William Bronk. The poems in the collection can be described as free verse. The collection concludes with a section titled "Littoral Zone" containing a series of ekphrastic poems responding to adjoining photograms by artist Michael Flomen.[9]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Be With via The Pulitzer Prize . July 26, 2024.
  2. Web site: National Book Foundation - 2018 National Book Awards . National Book Foundation . 26 July 2024.
  3. News: Taylor . Tess . Poems About Loss That Shatter Meaning and Borders . 29 July 2024 . The New York Times . 14 December 2018.
  4. News: Fox . Margalit . C. D. Wright, Poet of Ozarks and Beyond, Dies at 67 . 26 July 2024 . The New York Times . 16 January 2016.
  5. Chiasson . Dan . Forrest Gander's Grief Sounds . 29 July 2024 . The New Yorker . 20 August 2018.
  6. Web site: Lichen Doesn't Die - Poetry Off the Shelf . Poetry Foundation . en . 25 July 2024.
  7. Web site: SASHA VERYOVKA . SASHA VERYOVKA.
  8. Web site: Forrest Gander, Be With via New Directions . www.ndbooks.com . en.
  9. Web site: NEWS . MICHAEL FLOMEN . 29 July 2024.