Out of the Woods

The winning volume in the 1988 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition isOut of the Woodsby Thomas Bolt. As James Merrill, distinguished poet and judge of the competition, has said: "Here is an up-to-date pastoral: wrecked cars, glades of debris, polluted streams, all gravely held in Thomas Bo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bolt, Thomas
Format: Book
Language:English
Subjects:
English poetry
Language & Literature
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Summary:The winning volume in the 1988 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition isOut of the Woodsby Thomas Bolt. As James Merrill, distinguished poet and judge of the competition, has said: "Here is an up-to-date pastoral: wrecked cars, glades of debris, polluted streams, all gravely held in Thomas Bolt's unflinching gaze. 'I had found,' he writes, 'the secret center of America.' Given this wealth of evidence, its bleakness and sparkle, we can almost bring ourselves to believe him." A Hill in Virginia In this rude world Memory pertains In bald things, Of promises skipped over, violence Or accidents of kissing. Read within the deep patina Of the old stump Of a shainsawed black walnut Its circular History from sex to ruin; Look where Cracked and spattered chunks of cold quartz Stuck in mud Glitter up from a dull hill. Downhill, the wrecked car: A punched in windshield Sags whole, An afterimage of collision, Brilliant with sky.