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    No Sign
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    Ebook114 pages33 minutes

    No Sign

    By Peter Balakian

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    About this ebook

    New poetry collection from Peter Balakian, author of Ozone Journal, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
     
    In these poems, Peter Balakian wrestles with national and global cultural and political realities, including challenges for the human species amid planetary transmutation and the impact of mass violence on the self and culture. At the collection’s heart is “No Sign,” another in Balakian’s series of long-form poems, following “A-Train/Ziggurat/Elegy” and “Ozone Journal,” which appeared in his previous two collections. In this dialogical multi-sectioned poem, an estranged couple encounters each other, after years, on the cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades. The dialogue that ensues reveals the evolution of a kaleidoscopic memory spanning decades, reflecting on the geological history of Earth and the climate crisis, the film Hiroshima Mon Amour, the Vietnam War, a visionary encounter with the George Washington Bridge, and the enduring power of love..
     
    Whether meditating on the sensuality of fruits and vegetables, the COVID-19 pandemic, the trauma and memory of the Armenian genocide, James Baldwin in France, or Arshile Gorky in New York City, Balakian’s layered, elliptical language, wired phrases, and shifting tempos engage both life’s harshness and beauty and define his inventive and distinctive style.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateMar 21, 2022
    ISBN9780226784106
    No Sign
    Author

    Peter Balakian

    Peter Balakian is the author of Black Dog of Fate, winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for Memoir and a New York Times Notable Book, and June-tree: New and Selected Poems 1974–2000. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. He holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University and teaches at Colgate University, where he is a Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities.

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      Book preview

      No Sign - Peter Balakian

      Cover Page for No Sign

      No Sign

      No Sign

      Peter Balakian

      The University of Chicago Press

      Chicago and London

      The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

      The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

      © 2022 by The University of Chicago

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.

      Published 2022

      Printed in the United States of America

      31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22     1 2 3 4 5

      ISBN-13: 978-0-226-78407-6 (cloth)

      ISBN-13: 978-0-226-78410-6 (e-book)

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226784106.001.0001

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Balakian, Peter, 1951- author.

      Title: No sign / Peter Balakian.

      Other titles: Phoenix poets.

      Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2022. | Series: Phoenix poets

      Identifiers: LCCN 2021032855 | ISBN 9780226784076 (cloth) | ISBN 9780226784106 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry.

      Classification: LCC PS3552.A443 N6 2022 | DDC 811/.54—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021032855

      This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

      to my sisters and brother,

      PAM, JIM, and JAN

      Contents

      Acknowledgments

      ONE

      History, Bitterness

      Tung Lai Shun

      Ode to the Douduk

      Waiting for a Number

      Summer Ode

      Yellow Lilies

      Outside Arshile Gorky’s Studio

      Revenant Love

      Watching the Tulips Die

      Purple Irises

      Shadow Grid

      Grasses of Unknowing

      How Much I Love You

      TWO

      Eggplant

      Quince

      Bulgur

      Pomegranate

      Matza

      Fig

      Walnut

      Apricot

      Grape Leaves

      Tomatoes

      Okra

      Zucchini

      THREE

      No Sign

      FOUR

      Stalled in Traffic

      Head of Anahit/British Museum

      Coming to Istanbul

      Leaving the Big City

      Walking the Ruined City

      Notes

      Acknowledgments

      The author thanks the editors of the following publications where these poems first appeared:

      AGNI: "Walking the Ruined City"

      Atlantic: "Pomegranate"

      Consequence: "Yellow Lilies, Outside Arshile Gorky’s Studio"

      Green Mountains Review: "History, Bitterness"

      Harvard Review: "Tung Lai Shun"

      Literary Imagination: "Revenant Love, Matza, Fig"

      New Letters: "Okra"

      New Yorker: "Eggplant, Zucchini"

      Paris Review: "Shadow Grid"

      Ploughshares: "Stalled in Traffic"

      Plume: "Leaving the Big City"

      Poem-a-Day: "Ode to the Douduk, Waiting for a Number"

      Poetry: "Head of Anahit/British Museum"

      Prairie Schooner: "Summer Ode, Walnut, Grape Leaves"

      Progressive: "Tomatoes"

      Tikkun: "Coming to Istanbul"

      Yale Review: "How Much I Love You, Bulgur"

      The poem "No Sign" in a slightly earlier version was published in a limited edition in 2020 by Arrowsmith Press (Cambridge, MA).

      With thanks for conversations: Askold, Bruce, Karen, Mary, Rachel, Robert Jay, and Sven.

      One

      History, Bitterness

      A phone booth August/ Yaddo/ Saratoga Springs—air

      of the Tiffany parlor—sour scent of empty wine bottles,

      my friend handed me the sweating receiver: Go ahead—say hello.

      What could I say to James Baldwin who

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