Hothead: A Poem

by Stephen Cushman

Hothead is a haibun-patterned, book-length declamation in which no topic is off limits―Buddha, Jesus, Lincoln, America, global warming, eros, mental illness, the natural world, technology, the aging body. Cushman’s poetry shows us how to live in a world in which it is difficult to balance “the place where light and dark meet.” With an outmoded laptop named Patience as his daily consort, the speaker navigates through themes of love, politics, and belief. “There’s got to be someone,” Cushman writes, “exploring the way,” and the speaker of Hothead steps in to fill those shoes with intelligence, endurance, moxie, and humility.

88 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2018

About the author

Stephen Cushman is Robert C. Taylor Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

Reviews

[Atticus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The words flow out from Hothead as if the entirety of the Pacific was forced into my faucet; the use of language is so torrential that I often found myself mentally gasping for air, aided, of course, by the occasional Haiku acting as proverbial immovable objects. The Poem is rife with musicality, and musically it is no less than an opera-every line a concentrated instrument in a booming sinfonietta, each and every word wild yet in its proper place, like a Lion roaming the Savannah, a Polar Bear traversing the Artic wastes.

Moving all the way from Enheduanna to the affectionately-referred-to laptop "Patty", Hothead encompasses thoughts upon thoughts, realms upon realms, and Time itself, and of poetry as a whole, it is truly a must-read.