Waubonsee Community College

Indigo, Ellen Bass

eng

no index present

non fiction

Indigo

1119459373

Ellen Bass

"Indigo, the newest collection by Ellen Bass, merges elegy and praise poem in an exploration of life's complex grey areas. Whether her subject is oysters, high heels, a pork chop, a beloved dog, or a wife's return to health, Bass pulls us in with exquisite immediacy. Her lush and precisely observed descriptions allow us to feel the sheer primal pleasure of being alive in our own "succulent skin," the pleasure of the gifts of hunger, desire, touch. In this book, joy meets regret, devotion meets dependence, and most importantly, the poet so in love with life and living begins to look for the point where the price of aging overwhelms the rewards of staying alive. Bass is relentless in her advocacy for the little pleasures all around her. Her gaze is both expansive and hyperfocused, celebrating (and eulogizing) each gift as it is given and taken, while also taking stock of the larger arc. She draws the lines between generations, both remembering her parents' lives and deaths and watching her own children grow into the space that she will leave behind. Indigo shows us the beauty of this cycle, while also documenting the deeply human urge to resist change and hang on to the life we have, even as it attempts to slip away"--, Provided by publisher

Sous-chef -- The small country -- Reincarnation -- The orange-and-white high-heeled shoes -- Taking off the front of the house -- Ode to the pork chop -- Enough -- Sometimes I'm frightened -- Bringing flowers to Salinas Valley State Prison -- Taking my old dog out to pee before bed -- Getting to bed on a December night -- How it began -- Black coffee -- The long recovery -- Failure -- Goat, cow, man -- Listening -- Because -- Wilderness -- Experiment in empathy -- Pearls -- The kitchen counter -- Mammogram callback and ultrasound -- Blame -- Gopher -- Because what we do does not die -- Marriage -- Pushing -- Ode to Zeke -- Roses -- Kiss -- After long illness -- On my father's illness -- Photograph:Jews probably arriving to the Lodz Ghetto circa 1941-1942 -- Pines at Ponary -- Not dead yet -- I could touch it -- Ode to fat -- Sometimes, when she is buried deep -- Grizzly -- Sink your fingers into the darkness of my fur -- Fungus on fallen alder ata Lookout Creek -- I look over and there she is -- This was the door -- Ever-changing song -- Indigo -- Any common desolation