Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

D. A. Powell is the author of five collections of poetry, including Chronic, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He lives in San Francisco.

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USELESS LANDSCAPE, OR A Guide for Boys

Graywolf Press

Contents

Almonds in Bloom..........................................................................5Tender Mercies............................................................................6Cherry Blossoms in Spring.................................................................8The Fluffer Talks of Eternity.............................................................9Landscape with Sections of Aqueduct.......................................................10Useless Landscape.........................................................................11Bidwell Park..............................................................................12The Kiwi Comes to Gridley, CA.............................................................13College City Market, College City, CA.....................................................14Seven Sketches for a Landscape, Unfinished................................................15A Brief History of Internment.............................................................18The Bathers...............................................................................19Little Boy Blue...........................................................................20Dying in the Development..................................................................21Chicken...................................................................................23Bojangles.................................................................................24Dying in a Turkish Bath...................................................................25End of Days...............................................................................26That's Where They Hide the Silos..........................................................27Panic in the Year Zero....................................................................28Landscape with Temple, Mosque and Little Crosses..........................................32Landscape with Combine....................................................................33Quarantine................................................................................34Release the Sterile Moths.................................................................35Valley of the Dolls.......................................................................36Landscape with Figures Partially Erased...................................................37Homesickness..............................................................................39Bugcatching at Twilight...................................................................41Head Out on the Highway...................................................................43Tarnished Angel...........................................................................44Riverfront Park, Marysville, CA...........................................................45Love Hangover.............................................................................46Landscape with Lymphatic System, System of Rivulets, System of Rivers.....................47An Elegy for My Libido....................................................................49Abandonment under the Walnut Tree.........................................................50The Price of Funk in Funkytown............................................................51Traveling Light...........................................................................52Outside Thermalito........................................................................55The Opening of the Cosmos.................................................................56One Thousand and One Nights...............................................................57Funkytown: Forgotten City of the Plain....................................................59Notes of a Native Son.....................................................................61Donkey Basketball Diaries.................................................................62A Little Less Kettledrum, Please..........................................................64Narcissus.................................................................................66My Life as a Dog..........................................................................67A Guide for Boys..........................................................................68Boonies...................................................................................70Lessons in Woodworking....................................................................72Pupil.....................................................................................74Elements of a Cross-Country Runner........................................................75Magic Kingdom Come........................................................................76Space Junk................................................................................77Sporting Life.............................................................................78Dying in a Fallow.........................................................................79Reaching Around for You...................................................................80Goodbye, My Fancy.........................................................................81Hereafter.................................................................................83Midnight Cowbell..........................................................................84Do the Hustle.............................................................................85Once and Future Houseboy..................................................................86Backdrop with Splashes of Cum on It.......................................................87Transit of Mercury........................................................................89Platelet Count Descending.................................................................90Backstage Pass............................................................................91Having a Rambutan with You................................................................92Summer of My Bone Density Test............................................................94The Great Unrest..........................................................................96Orchard in January........................................................................98Ode to Joy................................................................................99Missionary Man............................................................................101Mass for Pentecost: Canticle for Birds & Waters...........................................104

Chapter One