{"product_id":"in-a-few-minutes-before-later-9780819501226","title":"In a Few Minutes Before Later","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"[Hillman's] work is fierce but loving, risk-taking, and beautiful.\" --Harvard Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFinalist for the Four Quartets Prize, given by Poetry Society of America, 2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn iconoclastic ecopoet who has led the way for many young and emerging artists, Brenda Hillman continues to re-cast innovative poetic forms as instruments for tracking human and non-human experiences. At times the poet deploys short dialogues, meditations or trance techniques as means of rendering inner states; other times she uses narrative, documentary or scientific materials to record daily events during a time of pandemic, planetary crisis, political and racial turmoil. Hillman proposes that poetry offers courage even in times of existential peril; her work represents what is most necessary and fresh in American poetry. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDuring an enchantment in the life\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eDo you love a living person\u003cbr\u003e absolutely? Tell them now.\u003cbr\u003eIn a half-unwieldy life you made, under\u003cbr\u003ethe hyaline sky, while the dead\u003cbr\u003e drank from zigzag pools nearby, \u003cbr\u003eif they saved you in your wild incapacities, \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e in timing of the world's harm\u003cbr\u003ein a little pettiness in your own heart while others took\u003cbr\u003e your madrigals in shreds to a tribunal, \u003cbr\u003e when others said you should feel grateful\u003cbr\u003e to be minimally adequate for the world's\u003cbr\u003etriple exposure or some tired committee...\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The ones who love us, how do they\u003cbr\u003ebreak through our defenses?\u003cbr\u003e We're tired today. Come back later.\u003cbr\u003eTheir baffled voices melting our wax walls\u003cbr\u003ewith a candle, the ones who understand\u003cbr\u003ewhat being is--the glowing, the broken, \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003ethe wheels, the brave ones--\u003cbr\u003e they have their courage, \u003cbr\u003eyou have yours; \u003cbr\u003e when you meet the one you love, \u003cbr\u003eit is so rare. When you meet\u003cbr\u003ethe one who loves you, it is extremely rare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eBRENDA HILLMAN (Kensington, CA) is the author of 11 books of poetry from Wesleyan University Press. She has co-edited numerous books, including \u003ci\u003eAt Your Feet \u003c\/i\u003eby Brazilian poet Ana Cristina Cesar. A former Chancellor at the Academy of American Poets and a recent recipient of the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for innovation in literature, she is Professor Emerita at Saint Mary's College of California and lives with her husband Robert Hass.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wesleyan University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50697404711186,"sku":"9780819501226","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b2df443b-fe3b-4f43-b359-39af9c956f82.jpg?v=1734301097","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/in-a-few-minutes-before-later-9780819501226","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}