{"product_id":"bitters-paperback","title":"Bitters - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRebecca Seiferle\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBitters\u003c\/i\u003e is an extended quarrel with God, driven by the desire to recover what is banished to the marginal and apocryphal. In her third collection Seiferle claims whatever originates in the earth as an emissary of the divine, whether it is a starving boy in a supermarket or the maggots thriving in the skin of a cat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeraphim\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven houseflies must have their angels.\u003cbr\u003e Principalities, at knee or elbow, the voice\u003cbr\u003e of God caught within an ear, at such a pitch, \u003cbr\u003e it makes the skull hum. And if I swat them, \u003cbr\u003e can they blame me? Like all good messengers, \u003cbr\u003e they're just testing whether we are still alive.\u003cbr\u003e By such means, the priest taught me, God creates.\u003cbr\u003e All the living and the dead, just a nursery\u003cbr\u003e for his hatching. \u003ci\u003eSo when I found a trinity\u003cbr\u003e of maggots in the abdominal wall\u003cbr\u003e of a living kitten, though I had to pinch\u003cbr\u003e them out, I could not blame them--Shadrach, \u003cbr\u003e Meshach, Abednego, pale witnesses\u003cbr\u003e of a homesick God, caught in the furnace\u003cbr\u003e of the flesh, hoping to sprout wings.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgainst the background and harsh light of the desert Southwest or withing the darkness of European history and religion, Seiferle has created a new kind of beauty: tragic, wise, open to every possibility. And just as the liquor of the title are colorful, earthy draughts of distilled spirits with an ancient medicinal history, so too are they a fitting metaphor for these darkly humorous and curative poems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRebecca Seiferle\u003c\/b\u003e's \u003ci\u003eThe Music We Dance To \u003c\/i\u003ewas nominated for the Pulitzer prize and poems from the volume are included in \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Poetry 2000.\u003c\/i\u003e Her first book, \u003ci\u003eThe Ripped-Out Seam \u003c\/i\u003ewon the Bogin Memorial, the Writers' Exchange, and the Writers' Union Poetry Prize. Her translation of Cesar Vallejo's \u003ci\u003eTrilce \u003c\/i\u003ewon the 1992 PenWest Translation Award. She lives in Farmington, NM.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eRebecca Seiferle is the author of four books of poems and two volumes of translations of Cesar Vallejo. She is Lannan Fellow, editor of the online magazine The Drunken Boat, and recently taught at Brown University. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 158\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.5 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 01, 2001\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42167420485767,"sku":"9781556591686","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/254c215937caa9fd37059d97a4f4454a.webp?v=1733327526","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/bitters-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}