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The Second Person: Poems
Finalist for the Academy of American Poets' James Laughlin Award Finalist for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry Finalist for the Lambda Book Award in Poetry
Drawing on traditional forms including the villanelle and pantoum, and writing with an ear for a beautiful, resounding rhythm, C. Dale Young investigates the lessons of the trainee doctor and documents the experiences of the practicing physician, remarking on the ways medicine alone is not "Do not let a man // abandon hope," says Saint Luke. And, as with the remarkable long sequence, "Triptych at the Edge of Sight," these are also poems of intimacy, depicting with rich color and poignant contemplation the way art struggles to "capture [. . .] on canvas. / Memory, do not fail me. Let me try again."
Drawing on traditional forms including the villanelle and pantoum, and writing with an ear for a beautiful, resounding rhythm, C. Dale Young investigates the lessons of the trainee doctor and documents the experiences of the practicing physician, remarking on the ways medicine alone is not "Do not let a man // abandon hope," says Saint Luke. And, as with the remarkable long sequence, "Triptych at the Edge of Sight," these are also poems of intimacy, depicting with rich color and poignant contemplation the way art struggles to "capture [. . .] on canvas. / Memory, do not fail me. Let me try again."
75 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2007
About the author
C. Dale Young
12 books28 followersC. Dale Young is the author of five collections of poetry, including Prometeo (Four Way Books 2021), and a novel-in-stories, The Affliction, published by Four Way Books in 2018. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, Young practices medicine full-time and teaches in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 29, 2009
read the robert pinsky review in the washington posts' book world a few weeks back and couldn't wait to get my hands on it!
**I started but can't wait til I take the GREs so that Ican re-read the first part and spend more time with it.
**I started but can't wait til I take the GREs so that Ican re-read the first part and spend more time with it.
May 13, 2017
Another startling medical collection of poetry by c dale young that feels like proctology. Young is deep inside himself and deep under our skin.
Though I craved some of the singular purpose of Young's The Halo, this one was full of gems ("Our sin rehearsed until it was flawless"and "There is nothing filthiest than the recesses of the human mouth."). Above all, Young deftly weaves medical student themes with heavier content, all with recourse to a stabilizing "body" of mixed literature and autopsy leavened with sex.
Among my favorites:
A football in the chair. A bee bumbling
At the window. Tangerine blossoms in the grass.
The hair flat on your legs as if combed.
Your yellow towel crumpled beside you.
You had fallen asleep while it was my turn
To shower. The heat moved
Through the house, slowly. You were
Wheezing in your sleep, damp and uncovered--
Afternoon was changing its name.
Though I craved some of the singular purpose of Young's The Halo, this one was full of gems ("Our sin rehearsed until it was flawless"and "There is nothing filthiest than the recesses of the human mouth."). Above all, Young deftly weaves medical student themes with heavier content, all with recourse to a stabilizing "body" of mixed literature and autopsy leavened with sex.
Among my favorites:
A football in the chair. A bee bumbling
At the window. Tangerine blossoms in the grass.
The hair flat on your legs as if combed.
Your yellow towel crumpled beside you.
You had fallen asleep while it was my turn
To shower. The heat moved
Through the house, slowly. You were
Wheezing in your sleep, damp and uncovered--
Afternoon was changing its name.
July 1, 2017
The Day Spa
--Gainsville, Florida
A browning palmetto frond
bends to warn us: "The humidity,
despite numerous claims,
will not preserve your youth.
And neither will the mud you'll press
against your skin, cucumber slices
on eyelids, the gray astringent salts
(the Black Sea, status post desiccation)."
Funny what jealousy will prompt
a palmetto frond to say. But we
continue, undeterred, down Second
until we reach the window of the Spa.
Back, we want to go back,
not to youth but to Ocho Rios,
the mineral water falling from the rocks,
the inescapable sound of the sea.
What we settle for is the Day Spa,
its air conditioner's whirr,
its forest-green trim, its Ralph Lauren decor,
white terry robes to protect our modesty.
How ridiculous we are, really.
To what lengths we will go
to avoid admitting this is the South,
that this college town is our home.
O clear glass jars of mentholatum,
O sprigs of mint and lemon peels
floating in hot-pink solutions.
Oh, what will we purchase today?
--Gainsville, Florida
A browning palmetto frond
bends to warn us: "The humidity,
despite numerous claims,
will not preserve your youth.
And neither will the mud you'll press
against your skin, cucumber slices
on eyelids, the gray astringent salts
(the Black Sea, status post desiccation)."
Funny what jealousy will prompt
a palmetto frond to say. But we
continue, undeterred, down Second
until we reach the window of the Spa.
Back, we want to go back,
not to youth but to Ocho Rios,
the mineral water falling from the rocks,
the inescapable sound of the sea.
What we settle for is the Day Spa,
its air conditioner's whirr,
its forest-green trim, its Ralph Lauren decor,
white terry robes to protect our modesty.
How ridiculous we are, really.
To what lengths we will go
to avoid admitting this is the South,
that this college town is our home.
O clear glass jars of mentholatum,
O sprigs of mint and lemon peels
floating in hot-pink solutions.
Oh, what will we purchase today?
March 18, 2020
Another I borrowed from the library on a whim. Lots I liked, some I didn't, learned a new style.
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Support your local library!
December 20, 2021
Such a pleasure in the language, the imagery, the precision of description.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews