{"product_id":"special-orders-isbn-9780375711558","title":"Special Orders","description":"In these powerful and “achingly beautiful” (\u003ci\u003eBooklist)\u003c\/i\u003e poems of self-examination and openness from one of the cornerstones of the poetry world, Edward Hirsch assesses “the minor triumphs, the major failures” of his life, and the people and places that have colored it.“Hirsch summons the past and holds it like a stone in his palm . . . It is possibly the most triumphant kind of mourning, that which holds that things gone by are not lost, only transformed.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Pedestal Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e (online)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A chronicle of the triumphs and failings of life . . . supersaturated with his delightful, instructive allusions to the greats of yore.” —\u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eEdward Hirsch \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of seven previous collections of poetry. He has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship and a National Book Critics Circle Award, and publishes regularly in journals such as \u003ci\u003eAmerican Poetry Review \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker.\u003c\/i\u003e A longtime teacher in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston, he is now president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.\u003cb\u003eBranch Library\u003c\/b\u003eI wish I could find that skinny, long-beaked boywho perched in the branches of the old branch library.He spent the Sabbath flying between the wobbly stacksand the flimsy wooden tables on the second floor,pecking at nuts, nesting in broken spines, scratchingnotes under his own corner patch of sky.I'd give anything to find that birdy boy againbursting out into the dusky blue afternoonwith his satchel of scrawls and scribbles,radiating heat, singing with joy.\u003cb\u003eA Few Encounters With My Face\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e                                                                \u003c\/i\u003e1                        Who is that moonlit stranger staring at me \u003ci\u003e                        \u003c\/i\u003ethrough the fog of a bathroom mirror                                                                 2                        Wrinkles form a parenthesis around the eyes                        dry wells of sadness at three a.m.                                                                3                        The forehead furrows in a scowl                        a question mark puzzled since childhood                                                                4                        Faint scrawl of chickenpox and measles                        broken asthma nights breathing steam                                                                5                        Hair thinning like his grandfather’s                        all those bald ancestral thoughts                                                                6The nose a ram’s horn a scroll                        as long and bumpy as the centuries                                                                7                        Greed of a Latvian horse thief                        surprised by the lights                                                                 8                       Primitive double chin divided in two                       a mother and father divorcing                                                                                          9                        Deep red pouches and black bags                        a life given to sleeplessness                                                                10                        Earnest grooves ironic blotches secret scars                        memories medallions of middle age                                                                11                        It would take a Cubist to paint                        this dark face splitting in three directions                                                                12                        Identify these features with rapture and despair                        one part hilarity two parts grief\u003cb\u003eCharades\u003c\/b\u003e                             We waited on two sides of the subway tracks:                             you were riding uptown and I was heading downtown                             to a different apartment, after all these years.                             We were almost paralyzed, as anxious                             travelers surged around us in waves,                              and then you started to pantomime.                             First, you touched your right eye. \u003ci\u003e                            \u003c\/i\u003e Then you palmed your left knee.                             Finally, you pointed at me.                             I made of a sign of understanding                             back to you but the train suddenly roared                             into the station and you disappeared.","brand":"Knopf","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300562456805,"sku":"NP9780375711558","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780375711558.jpg?v=1767737051","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/special-orders-isbn-9780375711558","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}