The Ghost Soldiers: Poems

ISBN: 0061756075

Author: Tate, James

Condition: New

In this, his fifteenth collection of poetry, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Tate continues doing what he does best. His poems are evocative, provocative, funny, subtle, eccentric, occasionally disturbing, and wildly outrageous. Tate's surrealist style strikes its own utterly new and original note in American poetry; as Charles Simic has observed, "To write a poem out of nothng at all is Tate's genius...Just about anything can happen next in this kind of poetry and that is its attraction...He makes me think that anti-poetry is the best friend poetry ever had."Father's DayMy daughter has lived overseas for a numberof years now. She married into royalty, and theywon't let her communicate with any of her family orfriends. She lives on birdseed and a few sipsof water. She dreams of me constantly. Her husband,the Prince, whips her when he catches her dreaming.Fierce guard dogs won't let her out of their sight.I hired a detective, but he was killed trying torescue her. I have written hundreds of lettersto the State Department. They have written backsaying that they are aware of the situation. Inever saw her dance. I was always away at someconvention. I never saw her sing. I was alwaysworking late. I called her My Princess, to makeup for my shortcomings, and she never forgave me.Birdseed was her middle name.