The Outer Bands

Gabriel Gómez

Description

The Outer Bands is a first collection of poems from Andrés Montoya prize-winner Gabriel Gomez. The book is an expansive examination of language and landscape, voice and memory, where the balance between experimentation and tradition coexist. The poems realize a reconciliation between the writer’s voice and the voice of witness, wonder, and tragedy; a dialogue between two worlds that employs an equally paradoxical imagery of the American Southwest and the marshes of Southern Louisiana. The book concludes with its namesake poem, “The Outer Bands,” a twenty-eight-day chronicle of the days between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which together decimated the Gulf Coast region in 2005. The sequence poem, a pastiche and re-contextualization of images, news blurbs, and political rhetoric, travels and responds in a spare subjectivity to the storm. Gabriel Gomez completed it during a two-month emergency residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute after his home in New Orleans was destroyed.

Sujets

• Nueva Orleans
• América
• Literature
• Hurricane Rita
• Hurricane Katrina
• Southwestern United States
• General officer
• Region
• New Orleans
• Poetry
• Regional
• General
• American
• La Nouvelle-Orléans

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780268080587
• Langue: English

Extrait

G O M E Z The Outer Bands

Outer Bands

G A B R I E L G O M E Z

T h e O u t e r B a n d s

T H E A N D R É S M O N T O YA P O E T RY P R I Z E

2004,Pity the Drowned Horses, Sheryl Luna

Final Judge:Robert Vasquez

2006,The Outer Bands, Gabriel Gomez

Final Judge:Valerie Martínez

The Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize,

named after the late California native and author of

the award-winning book,The Iceworker Sings,supports the

publication of a first book by a Latino or Latina poet.

Awarded every other year, the prize is administered

by Letras Latinas—the literary program of the

Institute for Latino Studies

at the University of Notre Dame

The OuterBands

G A B R I E L G O M E Z

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2007 by Gabriel Gomez Published by the University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Designed by Wendy McMillen, type set in 9.8 /14 Berthold Nofret Printed on 55# Nature’s Recycle Paper in the U.S.A. by Versa Press

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gomez, Gabriel, 1973- The outer bands / Gabriel Gomez. p. cm. — (The AndrÈs Montoya Poetry Prize ; 2006) ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02972-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-268-02972-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) I. Title. PS3607.O488O98 2007 811'.6--dc22 2007019490

This book is printed on recycled paper.

For Julie

13

7

Contents

II

8

15

Crash

Timbre

4

2

I

3

Introduction to the Poems

5

Curriculum

Cupola

Glaciers

Coined

Over Night Low

This Particular Season

20 Retablos

Lost in Translation

6

A Slender Chemistry of Wondrous Fiction

Acknowledgments

xi

ix

9

11

III

Map Reader

38

Adagio for Strings

Inverness

Rebirth

Paper

Figurines

Bluegrass

40

41

42

43

44

Lebanon, Tennessee

39

Murmation of Starlings

47

The dynamic sound that is

IV

The Outer Bands

51

49

50

Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgment to the editors of580 Splitwhere “Cupola” and “This Particular Season” first appeared. Part IV: The Outer Bands includes headlines taken from theNew York Times,August 30 to September 30, 2005. Much gratitude to Valerie Martínez for se- lecting these poems, The Santa Fe Art Institute and the Mills Writers Foundation—thank you for providing the space and funding to complete this book.

I also wish to thank my family Ernestina Gomez, Gilberto Gomez, Laura Gomez, and Gil Gomez. The Bernard family: Mary Elaine, Lewis, Charlene, Eddie, Angela, Juhye, John, and Jindallae. Maria Melendez for all her thoughtful commentary, advice, and friend- ship. Francisco Aragon for all his important work and devotion to poetry. Sheliah Wilson at SFAI and my fellow residents: Diane, Dave, Anne, Zach, Sandy, Michelle, Gordana, and Sharon. Thanks to Greg Glazner, a true mentor and teacher.

Jeremy, Karen, and Liam for the years of friendship, cold beer, use of their kitchen, and shelter from the storm. Henry, Kristen, and Gwen, thank you for the friendship, bonfires, broken bread, and off-color jokes. A very special thanks to Kate Ingold for her friendship and beautiful artwork created for the cover of this book. The City of New Orleans—life is still sweet. Calder—the best running partner a man could have.

And most importantly, all my love and appreciation to my most thoughtful reader Julie, who has held it down unconditionally through all of it—mi amor, mi alma, mi vida.

Joie de Vivre.

i

x