Dying for Beauty

Gail Wronsky

Whether paying tribute to literary icons such as Walt Whitman and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz or examining global and cultural degradation, Gail Wronsky proves to be a poet of sharp wit and endearing wonder. The crowning jewel of Dying for Beauty is “The Earth as Desdemona,” a nearly book-length lyric that alternates between meditation and dramatization, between discourse and incantation as it elegizes the earth and celebrates human intimacy.

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ISBN: 9781556591358

Format: Paperback

Ne Me Quitte Pas

There are French
intellectuals
who say that a woman
kisses herself as she walks—
her legs
like two schoolchildren
whispering—

In the space
between stanzas,
which I will call
“the clearing”—
in “the clearing,”
in the most interior clearing—
something of herself
(the woman walking)
is disappearing—

is left standing at the station
in a vintage Chanel mini,
kissing another unreliable lover
adieu.

About the Author

Gail Wronsky is the author, co-author, or translator of twelve books of poetry and prose, including the poetry collections Imperfect Pastorals (What Books Press, 2017), So Quick Bright Things (What Books Press, 2010), Poems for Infidels (Red Hen Press, 2004), and Dying for Beauty (Copper Canyon Press, 2000), a finalist for the Western Arts Federation poetry award. She is the translator of Argentinean poet Alicia Partnoy’s book Flowering Fires/Fuegos Florales (Settlement House Books, 2014), winner of the American Poetry Prize …

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Reviews

“Dying for Beauty is a book that reminds us of the extraordinary capacity poetry has to return us to our own complex and constantly shifting lives with both hope and clarity. With this exquisite new collection, Gail Wronsky has instantly claimed her place among the most distinguished poets of her generation.” —David St. John, from the introduction

“‘The Earth as Desdemona’ is lifted always by a rhythmic urgency and a faultless, inventive music… Wronsky is also trying to think through the poem, to reason passionately through its issues of language, gender, fear and loss.” —Boston Review

“There is a melancholic yet jaunty tone to these brilliant poems… Again and again her lines gather audacity as she fuses imagination with inventiveness, a virtuosity of language with a cryptic and feeling wit.” —Gregory Orr