{"id":1356,"date":"2017-05-25T22:44:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T22:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/?post_type=product&p=1356"},"modified":"2024-01-12T06:01:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T06:01:48","slug":"vestigial-by-page-hill-starzinger","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/product\/vestigial-by-page-hill-starzinger\/","title":{"rendered":"Vestigial<\/em>, Page Hill Starzinger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barrow Street 2012 Prize Winner<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c[F]ragments\u2014my\/specialty,\u201d writes Page Hill Starzinger in her compelling first book, Vestigial<\/em>, and, indeed, the title implies the book itself is a remnant. But if Vestigial<\/em> is fragmentary, (\u201cleavinges\/and fragmentes\u2026etched and eroded\u2026\u201d) it is a flood of fragments. This is a vivid, dynamic, and muscular collection whose poems seem able to sweep everything into themselves\u2014from the etymology of early English to the percentage of homes in Delhi without clean water. Yet the poems are neither anarchic nor hectic. In fact, in counterpoint to their energy, there is a beautiful, almost grave, and measured cadence to this work as Starzinger, like Penelope, weaves and unweaves. As she writes, \u201cI keep trying to shape a story. I keep disappearing.\u201d Vestigial<\/em> is a marvelous debut.
\n\u2014Lynn Emanuel, Contest Judge<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vestigial<\/em> whirls around a powerful magnetic center where particles, or vestiges, of now-living or lost worlds spin themselves. This poet\u2019s imagination is the fiery magnetism that revivifies the word-hoarde through these dazzling etymological flashes\u2014ancient and new embodiments of knowledge, science, history\u2014in the paradise furnace of poetry. The velocity of the author\u2019s insights stuns the reader: we follow, bewitched, into synaptical leaps that seem impossible to sustain, yet are sustained and unstoppable. Vestigial<\/em> is a virtuoso performance, learned in the extreme, yet also eloquently empathetic. \u201cUnfold your hands\u2014\/fall a\/part\u201d she writes. And we open the page and fall a\/part,\u201d then are re-made, wholly.
\n\u2014Carol Muske-Dukes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Can you follow\/yourself? Unstitch. Rename as\/entropy”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Could we reduce to a point that is fugitive”\u00a0\u00a0 Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

Reduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vestigial leavinges
\nand fragmentes.<\/em>
\nThese. However: whole\u2014
\nlike us
\na piecing together;<\/p>\n

recovered
\n\u2014or a kind of gluing,<\/em>
\nlike dinosaurs from Hell Creek Formation,
\nwith soft tissue and blood vessels inside
\nfemurs.<\/p>\n

Recursive
\nis not the point, not even
\nChomsky’s theory\u2014embedding entities
\nwithin like entities\u2014a tree structure.
\nBecause the most powerful ancient<\/p>\n

Amazon cultures, who resist
\nchange, have no stories
\nfor what came before. There, prosody\u2014present tense:
\nwoman winding raw
\ncotton, child at her feet, singing<\/p>\n

a series of notes,
\nlike a muted horn (what
\nsounds).
\nWhat<\/p>\n

is not enough about this? Could we fall prey<\/p>\n

to transcendence,
\nand reduce, to a point that is
\nfugitive; you are at the tip<\/p>\n

of my tongue, then
\nnot. Just like a leaf drifting
\nout of the picture. It’s called<\/p>\n

xibipio<\/em>\u2014
\nnot simply gone,
\nbut out of experience. Of Christ
\nthey ask: have you met
\nhim?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Applicable bookseller\/retail discount on bulk orders of 10+ copies automatically applied at checkout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[20],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1356","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-poetry","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"shipping-taxable","11":"purchasable","12":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}