{"product_id":"the-trailhead-kerri-webster-9780819578112","title":"The Trailhead","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVisionary poems lay claim to the power of the female poet\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSong of the Husbands\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003efor Henry\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAll winter the kind husbands hover \u003cbr\u003elike mortgaged angels. One \u003cbr\u003esmells gasoline in his sleep, would \u003cbr\u003ebe my lover. They want me \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eto be well. Specimen, they say, and \u003cbr\u003emean endearment. I row \u003cbr\u003einto the flood. The vodka \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eturns the lemon to crystal, the \u003cbr\u003ecarp turn the pond to shit and hunger, \u003cbr\u003ethe lingerie turns the trunkful\u003cbr\u003eof lingerie into a special trunk. \u003cbr\u003eAnd the husbands, the husbands\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf asked they will install a water feature. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI tend my minor art, \u003cbr\u003eI push my sorrow cart, \u003cbr\u003ethe women sing to the women o'er the prison \u003cbr\u003ewalls: Daughters of Elysium!: as \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI elysium myself to sleep and, \u003cbr\u003ewaking, wear a \u003cbr\u003epoppy cast from silver around\u003cbr\u003emy neck. I grow\u003cbr\u003eashamed of my teeth, I pawn, redeem, \u003cbr\u003epawn, redeem, shoo \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003edeer from the poison hedge. Oh\u003cbr\u003eleanmost season. Speak, \u003cbr\u003ehusbands; speak, cocked \u003cbr\u003ehoneys; speak!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I'm learning to allow for visions,\" the primary speaker of \u003ci\u003eThe Trailhead \u003c\/i\u003eannounces, setting out through a landscape populated by swan-killers, war torturers, and kings. Much of the book takes place in the contemporary American West, and these poems reckon with the violence inherent in that place. A \"conversion narrative\" of sorts, the book examines the self as a \"burned-over district,\" individual and cultural pain as a crucible in which the book's sibyls and spinsters are remade, transfigured. \"Sacralization\/is when things become holy, also\/when vertebrae fuse,\" the book tells us, pulling at the tensions between secular and sacred embodiment, exposing the essential difficulty of being a speaking woman. The collection arrives at a taut, gendered calling--a firm faith in the power and worth of the female voice--and a broader faith in poetry not as a vehicle of atonement or expiation, but as bulwark against our frailties and failings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Kerri Webster\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0819578118\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780819578112\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Wesleyan University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/06\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 76\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.30w x 0.50d","brand":"Kerri Webster","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43926500180223,"sku":"9780819578112","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_8e2c6958-c972-49e2-b4b9-23ebb2aa93e7.jpg?v=1681083420","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-trailhead-kerri-webster-9780819578112","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}