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    Contingency Plans: Poems
    Contingency Plans: Poems
    Contingency Plans: Poems
    Ebook68 pages38 minutes

    Contingency Plans: Poems

    By David K. Wheeler

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    About this ebook

    'Contingency Plans' maps the body, the land, and the hollows therein, eager to determine their dimensions, carried along by possibility, to find that what once made us anxious is out of the question, and what has kept us awake now sings us back to sleep. Note to teachers: excellent for classroom use if you are teaching villanelles and sestinas.

    ***

    "These are poems of great spiritual crisis and consequence, where the dark night of the soul is a rugged rucksack shouldered by the poet. But the wilderness resounds with the voice of a choir and the wearying road can always beckon you home."

    --Oliver de la Paz, author of 'Requiem for the Orchard'

    "A great poet confounds me; he uses the same materials I do -- words -- but where I've built a fort, he has erected a cathedral. Wheeler has "revealed the space behind our ribs," and I must remove my sandals."

    --Susan Isaacs, author of 'Angry Conversations with God'

    "Simultaneously eloquent and potently raw; intimate reflections on spirituality and maturation, in harmony and conflict, that reverberate through every human journey."

    --Carol Cassella, author of 'Healer' and National Bestseller 'Oxygen'

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherT.S. Poetry Press
    Release dateMar 1, 2015
    ISBN9781943120055
    Contingency Plans: Poems
    Author

    David K. Wheeler

    David K. Wheeler is a musician, essayist, and poet. He has an album called 'There, There' and his writing has appeared at 'The Morning News' and in 'The Pacific Northwest Reader,' an essay collection from Harper/Delphinium. David works for Shelf Awareness and lives in Seattle, Washington.

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      Book preview

      Contingency Plans - David K. Wheeler

      One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.

      —John Steinbeck

      contingency plans

      poems

      david k. wheeler

      T. S. Poetry Press • New York

      T. S. Poetry Press

      Ossining, New York

      Tspoetry.com

      © 2010 by David K. Wheeler

      All rights reserved

      Throughout this collection, various pieces include references to the following brands and sources: Lucky Strike is a product of Reynolds American Inc.; Sound & Vision is from the album Low by David Bowie, RCA Records; This is the First Day of My Life is from the album I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning by Bright Eyes, Saddle Creek Records; Wilby Wonderful is a film by Daniel MacIvor, Mongrel Media; My Super-Sweet Sixteen is an MTV program; Shark Week is a Discovery Channel series; Pabst Blue Ribbon is a product of Pabst Brewing Company; The New York Times is a product of the New York Times Company; VHS is a product of JVC.

      Cover image by Kelly Langner Sauer. kellylangnersauer.com

      Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL

      VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.

      Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

      ISBN 978-1-943120-05-5

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

      Wheeler, David K.

      [Poems.]

      Contingency Plans: poems/David K. Wheeler

      ISBN 978-1-943120-05-5

      The author and publisher wish to express their grateful acknowledgment to

      the following publications and venues in which these poems and essays first

      appeared:

      Jeopardy Magazine: I have nothing memorized, Because I speak on my feet, The Chimera, Sunday Morning Bread, Conversation Piece. The Penwood Review: Christmas Morning. Chronogram Magazine: Your Bright Wounds. International Arts Movement.org: On Restlessness. TheHighCalling.org: Walking the Line Backward and Forward.

      to Dad, to Mom, to Dan

      Contents

      I. Form

      11 Demerits

      Midnight Screening

      Take Shelter, Take Cover

      Before you discovered a gift in thievery

      Your Bright Wounds

      The Chance of Rain

      Contingency Plans

      Forecast

      Photograph, 1993

      II. Lake Padden

      The Cold Season

      Ordinary Time

      Oregon Hotel. On the lake,

      The Backwoods

      Sound & Vision

      To Helena, once again

      Zuanich Point

      III. The Cup

      The Other Son

      Christmas Morning

      Because I speak on my feet

      On Restlessness

      Compline

      Adequate

      Slaughter Season

      Lullaby for the Sunshine Silver Mine

      Prayers for Friends

      IV. Walking the Line Backward and Forward

      First Cigarette

      My House

      Shaving

      Father’s Day

      Last Dance

      On Anatomy & Physiology

      I have nothing memorized

      Awake! Revival

      Conversation Piece

      On Province

      The Long Saturday

      The hypochondriac floats

      A Restoration

      The Way Leaves Age

      V. Sanctuary

      Divide Wisdom, MT

      Out of Ink

      The Chimera

      St. Peter’s Hospital Nursery

      Mother’s Day

      Song of St. George

      Lent

      Sunday Morning Bread

      Against Acedia

      Chernobyl Convalescent Home

      Eschaton

      I.

      Form

      We’re sitting on the patio, Lu and her husband Norm, and I, outside a coffee pub in Moscow, one of the twin college towns straddling the Idaho-Washington border. I’ve come to visit friends I have not seen in years, and to stretch my legs. I must be drinking ale while we traipse around topics like

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