turner cassity

Edith Cavell

Edith Cavell

England’s recruiting poster Joan of Arc,
I was a crypto-Walloon, and a stark

Reminder that when all is said and done
The letter of the law was with the Hun,

Although I rose at once to such renown
As was the Lusitania’s, once down,

If with as little claim to innocence.
All that could be brought forth in my defense

Is that I did not profit from my acts,
And that confession is what guile exacts.

No Second Eden: Poems

IF you think that Turner Cassity has mellowed or slowed down since the 1998 release of his selected poems, The Destructive Element, think again. In No Second Eden Cassity is back more Swiftian than ever. Among the targets reduced to ruin are countertenors, parole boards, the French Symbolists, calendar reformers, the Yale Divinity School, and the cult of Elvis. Without turning a blind eye, he even extends a toast to Wernher von Braun. Surprisingly, there is a poem about the Mississippi in which Cassity grew up. Unsurprisingly, it is a vision quite unlike others of that state.

cover of No Second Eden: Poemsauthor: Turner Cassity
ASIN or ISBN-10: 080401051X
binding: Paperback
list price: $14.95 USD
amazon price: $14.95 USD


Hurricane Lamp (Phoenix Poets Series)

"With my eyes closed, I might have guessed a collaboration between William Empson and Noel Coward. But of course no one could have made up Turner Cassity but himself. The man is a wizard. In these new poems, each as clear and mysterious as crystal, he has conjured all sorts of miniature wonders and nasty home truths. It is the devil's own sorcery—and pure enchantment."—J. D. McClatchy

cover of Hurricane Lamp (Phoenix Poets Series)author: Turner Cassity
ASIN or ISBN-10: 0226096157
binding: Paperback
list price: $23.00 USD
amazon price: $23.00 USD


Between the Chains (Phoenix Poets Series)

"With my eyes closed, I might have guessed a collaboration between William Empson and Noel Coward," J. D. McClatchy has said of Turner Cassity's poems. Cassity's new collection turns an icy needle-spray on topics as diverse as a Polynesian firedance, Johannes Brahms, and the Banque de l'Indo-Chine. Breaking a pact with himself, Cassity has written two poems about the South, which, the poet claims, are unlikely "to cause professional Southerners anything except discomfort." "Turner Cassity's excellent work is like no one else's.

cover of Between the Chains (Phoenix Poets Series)author: Turner Cassity
ASIN or ISBN-10: 0226096173
binding: Paperback
list price: $23.00 USD
amazon price: $13.12 USD


Destructive Element: New & Selected Poems

Just when you think you are in the midst of a traditional, formal poem, Turner Cassity turns satin into sting. A native of Jackson, Mississippi--like writers Eudora Welty and Richard Wright--Cassity ranges the world in subject matter, from "Berlin to Baghdad" to "Texarkana," always exposing elements that are risky to divulge and often hilarious to contemplate. In "Why Fortune Is the Empress of the World," humanity is depicted "in overcrowded lifeboats" drawing lots. In "Domestic Symphony" Cassity resolves, "Say Heaven is this treehouse we have sinned in. / Our wine is ready.

cover of Destructive Element: New & Selected Poemsauthor: Turner Cassity
ASIN or ISBN-10: 0821412221
binding: Paperback
list price: $24.95 USD
amazon price: $24.95 USD


Devils & Islands: Poems

As he approaches eighty, Turner Cassity may finally be out of control. His hatchet has never fallen more lethally, meaning if you have the stomach for him he is more enjoyable than ever. Under the blade come Martha Graham, Johann Sebastian Bach, musicologists, tree huggers, Frank Gehry, folk music, folk art of all times and all places, folk. . . . There are, however, his unpredictable sympathies: Edith Wilson, skyscrapers, Pontius Pilate, Pilate’s legionnaires. He obviously has a soft spot for Pop Culture, although he cannot avoid seeing it de haut en bas.

cover of Devils & Islands: Poemsauthor: Turner Cassity
ASIN or ISBN-10: 0804011036
binding: Paperback
list price: $14.95 USD
amazon price: $14.86 USD


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