State Library of Louisiana Library System

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2016

Format:	Book
Author:	Kirby, David, 1944- author.
Title:	Get up, please : poems / David Kirby.
Publisher, Date:	Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2016]
Description:	76 pages ; 23 cm
Summary:	In comical and complex poems, David Kirby examines our extraordinarily human condition through the lens of our ordinary daily lives. These keenly observant poems range from the streets of India, Russia, Turkey, and Port Arthur, Texas, to the imaginations of fellow poets Keats and Rilke, and to ruminations on the mundane side of life via the imperfect sandwich. Whether remembering girls' singing groups of the 1950s or recounting a child asking his priest if his dog would go to heaven, Kirby has the ability to make us laugh, but he can also bring us to tears through our laughter.-- From front jacket cover flap.
Subjects:	American poetry. Poetry.
Genre:	Poetry.
Other Title:	Poems. Selections
Contents:	If I don't go crazy -- John Keats -- The juniper tree -- Taking it home to Jerome -- All my jellies -- Ode to disappointment -- You've built your own mosque -- Get up, please -- John the conqueror -- Ode to lists -- Oh, well -- The juggler of Notre-Dame -- The minotaur -- Come to find out -- Let's take off -- I had a girl -- A few old things -- Is Spot in heaven? -- Mrs. Jones -- Girl groups -- I believe you are death -- Old poets -- The nematode -- Gnürszk.
LCCN:	2015033302
ISBN:	9780807162897 0807162892 9780807162903 0807162906 9780807162910 9780807162934
Other Number:	920680570
System Availability:	2
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Library Journal Review

"Sometimes when I'm writing a poem,// I feel as though I'm operating that crusher that turns/ a full-size car into a metal cube the size of a suitcase.// At other times, I'm just a secretary." Thus does National Book Award finalist Kirby (The House on -Boulevard St.) explain his ars poetica, which allows him to spin out story-telling verse in language that's colloquial and digressive, offering often eye-popping connections. How do we get from the childhood doctor who treated the speaker for polio to JFK's assassination? Readers might ask that a lot, as some associations here seem more far-flung than usual, but as always Kirby is exhilarating about showing us small if consequential moments and the concreteness of things. VERDICT Write a poem? "I'd suggest you shop for new/ underwear and take a taxi" says Kirby briskly, putting us right in the world. Accessible and fun. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Normally a very funny poet, Kirby is less hilarious than usual in his new collection, though still buoyant and cheerfully agnostic about the ultimate meanings of things. The title poem takes off from an Indian practice of touching another's feet, as, for instance, when a tabla player so acknowledges a tamboura player when they have finished a performance. An Indian mother explains to Kirby that this means he thinks the other // is a god. My children do this before they go off to school. Another Indian friend says it means, I bow / to the light within you.' It is Kirby's happy extrapolation that the god, the light within, should reply, Get up, please. Such recognition of the numinous and graceful response happens again and again in these poems as, repeatedly, he finds ordinary life things like encountering the usual assortment of neighborhood dogs blooming with significance because of the poem, the aphorism, the picture, the tune he brings to it. Seldom does art inform life, and life art, so rewardingly.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2016 Booklist

Summary

In comical and complex poems, David Kirby examines our extraordinarily human condition through the lens of our ordinary daily lives. These keenly observant poems range from the streets of India, Russia, Turkey, and Port Arthur, Texas, to the imaginations of fellow poets Keats and Rilke, and to ruminations on the mundane side of life via the imperfect sandwich.
Whether remembering girls' singing groups of the 1950s or recounting a child asking his priest if his dog would go to heaven, Kirby has the ability to make us laugh, but he can also bring us to tears through our laughter.

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