These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit

Hayan Charara is the author of These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit. He is a poet, children¿s book author, essayist, and editor. His other collections of poems include Something Sinister, The Sadness of Others, and The Alchemist¿s Diary. His children¿s book, The Three Lucys, received the New Voices Award Honor, and he edited Inclined to Speak, an anthology of contemporary Arab American poetry. With Fady Joudah, he is also a series editor of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. His honors include a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lucille Joy Prize in Poetry from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, the John Clare Prize, and the Arab American Book Award. He lives in Houston.

"From Hayan Charara comes a candid new collection of poems, one that deconstructs the deceptively simple question of what it means to be good-a good person, a good citizen, a good teacher, a good poet, a good father"--

CONTENTSSelf-Portrait in RetrospectUnder the SunOlderSome SentencesPorch HaikuElegy with Apples, Pomegranates, Bees, Butterflies, Thorn BushesOak, Pine, Warblers, Crows, Ants, and WormsNeighborsEmpathyTerrorismSelf-Portrait as TreesOn the Death of Other People¿s ChildrenAll These Questions You AskSelf-Portrait with Woman on the SubwayThe Problem with Me Is the Problem with YouUnresolved HaikuUnresolvedBeautiful MorningBeing a Mother and FatherGetting ByHow It HappenedOld CoupleSummertimeSeeing Our Mother Years After She DiedCondolence Then ApologyHigh School Angst, High School TrystThe River in WinterWhat Doesn¿t Kill You Makes You Stronger//PreludeFugue//Self-Portrait After a FuneralBees, Honeycombs, HoneyThe Symbolic LifeSelf-Portrait as Scientific ObservationThe Day Phil Levine DiedThe PrizeMeanSibling RivalryAt the PartyTo the PoetSelf-Portrait with Empty Pack of CigarettesAcross the Country from a Cemetery in MichiganSinceritySuddenly and Unexpectedly and from No Clearly Understood CauseSelf-Portrait with Curses at 35,000 FeetMichiganThe Night the Dog DiedSelf-Portrait with Dog, Possum, Newspaper, and ShovelThe Other WomanSelf-Portrait with Cassette PlayerPersonal Political PoemNothing Happened in 1999That Summer That Year During the Heat Wave1979Ode on an Abandoned HouseApokaluptein//AcknowledgmentsNotes