Belieu, Erin

One Above & One Below: New Poems

ISBN: 9781556591440
Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2000. First Edition. Inscribed & signed by Erin Belieu to Dan Rzicznek. “Too prosaic, didactic, / purely political, the cause lacking / a certain loftiness, unlike homelessness / or domestic abuse, those subjects / newly upholstered with the necessary, / American-style noblesse oblige. / Maybe if I were writing in / an Eastern European language with / a translator who caught all the verve / of my colloquial phrasing, writing / from a tradition that believes in options / other than the exhausted, ethical / tepidity of Art for Art’s Sake. / the verbal icon spinning away / unsullied in some universal nook, / clean as Ol’Possum’s toilet bowl / that preatomic mode that’s so outre / but keeps on spreading anyway, / then maybe I could get away with it.”--First several stanzas of “I Cant Write a Poem about Class Rage,” pg 27. Erin Belieu (b. 1965) is an American poet whose work focuses on gender, love, and history, filtering wide-ranging subject matter through a variety of theoretical frameworks. Belieu utilizes a visceral, raw, straightforward prose style that many would categorize as “street talk,” as opposed to a more academic or lyrical style and she is often concerned with class, gender, feminism, and various structures of systemic oppression. Belieu has authored a number of books of poetry, including: Infanta (1995) [see item #7692]; Black Box (2006); Slant Six (2014); and Come-Hither Honeycomb (2020) among many others. She also co-edited the anthology The Extraordinary Tide: New Poetry by American Women (2001) with poet Susan Aizenberg. Offered today is the 2000 collection of poetry One ABove & One Below. Belieu’s poetic voice soars, wails, and orates majestically throughout this odyssey of self-discovery and turmoil. As the back cover states: “...One Above & One Below, seduces her readers with a precise and delicious language. As she tries to make sense out of what constitutes the truest self, she ranges from the elegiac horizons of the Great Plains to an equally open embrace of a more frenzied, cosmopolitan world. Whether angry or humorous, formal or free, Belieu’s poems ‘dive and soar,’ gathering an exhilarating, exquisite momentum.” One Above & One Below is a poetic wonder and should be read by any lover of poetry. From the collection of Dan Rzicznek (b. 1979), an esteemed Ohio poet who is also an academician at Bowling Green State University. Inscribed and signed by Erin Belieu in thin black ink at title page beneath her printed name (which she has crossed out): “For Dan / With no extra N / Thanks for being here. Hope / these poems repay your attention. / Yours, Erin. / W. Virginia / August 2002.” Trade-format softcover original. First edition, first printing as stated at copyright page (next to number sequence ending at "2"). In very fine condition with only minor wear to fine edges and slight smudging to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #7627]

Price: $25.00