Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    That Kind of Happy
    That Kind of Happy
    That Kind of Happy
    Ebook70 pages19 minutes

    That Kind of Happy

    By Maggie Dietz

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    October Aubade

    If I slept too long, forgive me.

    A north wind quickened the window frames
    so the room pitched like a moving train

    and the pillow’s whiff of hickory
    and shaving soap conjured your body

    beside me. So I slept in the berth
    as the train chuffed on, unburdened

    by waking’s cold water, ignorant
    of pain, estrangement, hunger and      

    the crucial fuel the boiler burned  
    to keep the minutes’ pistons churning

    while I slept. Forgive me.

    That Kind of Happy, the long-awaited second collection by award-winning poet Maggie Dietz, explores the sharp, profound tension between a disquieted inner life and quotidian experience. Central to the book are poems that take up two major life events: becoming a mother and losing a father within a short stretch of time. Here, at the intersection of joy and grief, of persistence and attrition, Dietz wrestles with the questions posed by such conflicting experiences, revealing a mind suspicious of quick fixes and dissatisfied with easy answers. The result is a book as anguished as it is distinguished.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateApr 1, 2016
    ISBN9780226349428
    That Kind of Happy

    Related to That Kind of Happy

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Poetry

      Jun 1, 2021

      Poetry
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Nick Ripatrazone

      Dec 5, 2021

      The best short story that I’ve ever read is “The Tree” by Dylan Thomas, from his book Adventures in the Skin Trade. It is such a wildly unkempt story. The post A Year in Reading: Nick Ripatrazone appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Aughts

      Sep 11, 2017

      Aughts
      23 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      Apparition

      Mar 26, 2020

      Apparition
      8 min read

    • Article

      Skunk City

      Nov 25, 2022

      Skunk City
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Best Rain in Literature

      Apr 14, 2020

      The Best Rain in Literature
      11 min read

    • Article

      Poetry of Place

      May 30, 2023

      Poetry of Place
      9 min read

    • Article

      Alta Picks

      Jan 7, 2020

      Playwright Heidi Schreck (pictured right) was a plucky teen from the Apple Capital of the World—Wenatchee, Washington—when she stormed across the country winning enough constitutional debates to fund her University of Oregon tuition. Schreck is all g

      2 min read

    • Article

      Where We Write

      Feb 9, 2017

      Where We Write
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Specificity of Art

      Oct 10, 2022

      Like most writers, Jill Madden Melchoir has been putting pen to paper for as long as she can remember. But perhaps unlike most writers, Melchoir’s writing didn’t start with stories or poems: “It was writing lists of stuff I liked, literally just list

      8 min read

    • Article

      In Search of Lost Travels

      Jun 4, 2018

      In Search of Lost Travels
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Waking Dream

      Sep 19, 2019

      A Waking Dream
      7 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      May 1, 2023

      Great One, Maker, Weaver of Things, I want to undress the tree to find you hidden there in the layers of sapwood, as you were hidden in a mango I ate today, its sweet and buttery flesh. A fly entered the house through the front door. Was that you? At

      3 min read

    • Article

      Sin

      Sep 3, 2019

      By the last week of April, the parking lot’s long chainlink fence already bristles with its hundreds of attachments: coiled wire, duct tape, butterfly clips, boat hooks, coat hangers, pellets of industrial glue, nylon strips, braided strings, and wha

      29 min read

    • Article

      An Era In Fayetteville

      Aug 13, 2019

      An Era In Fayetteville
      6 min read

    • Article

      Shoulder Season

      Aug 17, 2017

      Shoulder Season
      8 min read

    • Article

      Stop Hating on Adjectives!

      Jun 12, 2019

      A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for That Kind of Happy

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      That Kind of Happy - Maggie Dietz

      That Kind of Happy

      That Kind of Happy

      Maggie Dietz

      The University of Chicago Press

      Chicago & London

      MAGGIE DIETZ is the author of Perennial Fall, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and coeditor of Americans’ Favorite Poems, Poems to Read, and An Invitation to Poetry. She teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

      The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

      The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

      © 2016 by The University of Chicago

      All rights reserved. Published 2016.

      Printed in the United States of America

      25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5

      ISBN-13: 978-0-226-34939-8 (paper)

      ISBN-13: 978-0-226-34942-8 (e-book)

      DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226349428.001.0001

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Dietz, Maggie, author.

      That kind of happy / Maggie Dietz.

      pages cm — (Phoenix poets series)

      ISBN 978-0-226-34939-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-34942-8 (e-book)

      I. Title. II. Series: Phoenix poets.

      PS3604.I375T47 2016

      811'.6—dc23

      2015026770

      ♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

      for Richard J. Dietz

      Contents

      Acknowledgments

      Zoloft

      Hill Country

      Are We There Yet?

      Killdeer

      Downtown

      Slip

      1. Origin Myth

      2. Adrift

      Kempie

      December

      Afternoon at the ER

      Galilee

      Late Spring

      Delivery

      1. Waking

      2. Waiting

      3. Pitocin

      4. Lidocaine

      5. Parturition

      Love Song

      Diagnosis Dream

      One God

      October Aubade

      November

      Pluto

      Demolition Derby

      Another Day, Another Dolor

      Still Falling

      Fiddle Ode

      Thin Ice

      Terms of the Disease

      Lullaby

      Takedown

      April Incantation

      When/Then

      Two Shores

      Mediterranean

      Anywhere Elsewhere

      Notes

      Acknowledgments

      Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors of the publications in which

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1