Trances of the Blast

Mary Ruefle is the author of Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures, a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism (Wave Books, 2012), and Selected Poems (Wave Books, 2010), winner of the William Carlos Williams Award. She has published ten other books of poetry, a book of prose (The Most of It, Wave Books, 2008), and a comic book, Go Home and Go to Bed! (Pilot Books/Orange Table Comics, 2007); she is also an erasure artist, whose treatments of nineteenth-century texts have been exhibited in museums and galleries and include the publication of A Little White Shadow (Wave Books, 2006). Ruefle is the recipient of numerous honors, including an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a Whiting Award. She lives in Bennington, Vermont, and teaches in the MFA program at Vermont College.

Now in paperback, the most recent collection from celebrated poet Mary Ruefle—moving, authoritative, generous.

ContentsSagaMetaphysical BlightSpikenardThe Estate of Single BlessednessAre We Alone? Is It Safe to Speak?Le Livre de ma VieEn RouteProvenanceMüller and MeMiddle SchoolFireworksCollegeMimosaGreetings My Dear GhostThe DayNew MorningReceiving News of the Devastation of My MindDonkey OnMidsummer at Jefferson SloughJaroslavGoodnight IreneNite NiteMarco PoloLittle EternitiesFavorite SongThe Afternoon According to Saint MatthewOn Velvet TurfParis by MoonlightAlbert Finney AgonArgotHeliumApologiaHold That ThoughtArs PoeticaSpiderA Custom of MourningAbdicationA Penny for Your ThoughtsOne World at a TimeEric with the Light Brown Hair HappyJumping AheadWomen in LaborShalimarTomorrow Will Be BeautifulThe Bunny Gives Us a Lesson in EternityOpen Letter to My AncestorsSawdustBroken SpokeFall Leaf StudiesPlatonicWoodtangleTrances of the BlastWhite ButtonsFaster Love Is All There IsThe Seafood FanciersCalm, How Darest Thou WaitThe Art of HappinessFor CarlosLiteralPipkins of the MimulusUp AbovePeridotNarrow Road to the NorthWings of LoveDolorous InterludeRumors of EarthWhat Went Ye Out Into May to See?BloodrootQ&ASudden Additional EnergyPoem Written Before I Was BornElegy for a GameWith Love & DisregardPicking Up PineconesAcknowledgments