{"product_id":"close-encounters-down-home-pamela-yenser-9781646624348","title":"CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Down Home","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Everything abandoned comes alive\" Pamela Yenser writes in \u003cem\u003eCLOSE ENCOUNTERS Down Home\u003c\/em\u003e, which becomes an invocation for resilience in a world filled with disaster at every turn: whether it's the wreckage of flying saucers in Roswell, or a brother and a mother who are irrevocably changed after a complicated birth, or an abusive father who is always in the driver's seat-whether it's by plane or car. Yenser does the difficult work of reckoning with trauma and the \"family \/ history slamming the lid on truth.\" And though there's comfort in escape, and beauty to be found in the landscapes these poems traverse in a wide range of traditional and open poetic forms, Yenser reminds us \"As long as you live \/ you won't forget,\" and there's danger everywhere. Lucky for us, we have a wonderful guide who knows her way around language and line, and is cunning enough to \"have razor blades sewn \/ into the hem of every poem.\" -\u003cstrong\u003eGary Jackson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePamela Yenser is a learned poet who knows the context, history, and texts of literature. Here she uses her supple and strict prosody to tell a family story about an abusive, daredevil father, a denying-praying mother, her \"little retarded brother\" (\"She is her brother's keeper\") and more. In airplanes and Airstream trailers \"one catastrophe after another\" happens to mark a childhood where \"Visions of the devil \/ made you tithe, trade in the family silver.\" This astonishing chapbook delivers one revelation after another in poems exquisitely structured: \"The past is a trap the Jaws of Life \/ can't break,\" she writes, \"... but isn't this the work a poet is meant to do?\" One poem in exact rhyming couplets is called \"In the Garden of Demented Parents.\" Another, also in couplets, ends: \"Look! I have razor blades sewn \/ into the hem of every poem.\" Read this brilliant and triumphant chapbook by a poet who limns the tragedy and triumph of her life. -\u003cstrong\u003eHilda Raz\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePamela Yenser's brave and tender poems spin together family history, personal resilience, and imaginative perseverance \"sharp as that wreckage\/ strewn like tinsel on glitter-\/fields of tumbled rock\" (as she writes in the title poem). Encompassing everything from a \"bad weather balloon made of Kryptonite\" to \"a pineapple\/ ruffled doily,\" Yenser juxtaposes the images and dreams of the otherworldly and the day-to-day life while also writing deeply of love and survival, monsters and angels, magic tricks and memories. This is a captivating and sparkling collection. -\u003cstrong\u003eCaryn Mirriam-Goldberg\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePamela Yenser's \u003cem\u003eCLOSE ENCOUNTERS\u003c\/em\u003e refers to, yes, the Roswell UFO, as well as family relationships that are a parallel encounter. The poems' narrator sees the flying saucer wreckage as a four-year-old. She writes about this iconic disruption of the skies as a way to reveal the workings of memory itself. This is an exciting personal fable that blends journalism, verse, and narration. -\u003cstrong\u003eDenise Lowe\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Pamela Yenser\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1646624343\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781646624348\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Finishing Line Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/05\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 46\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.11d","brand":"Pamela Yenser","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43944538538239,"sku":"9781646624348","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_b815c2c2-48a8-42a9-8764-db54666b3015.jpg?v=1681504047","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/close-encounters-down-home-pamela-yenser-9781646624348","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}