![\"ALL](\"http:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Joy-Katz-front-cover-e1377031473889.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\npaper \u2022 84 pages \u2022 15.95
\nISBN-13: 978-1-935536-35-2<\/p>\n
Add to Cart<\/a> [\/column] The Latin root of perceive means \u201cto seize entirely,\u201d and that\u2019s exactly what these poems do. Here there\u00a0is \u201cno door \/ just the edge of an infinite pour\u201d into motherhood, cities old and new, and the histories that\u00a0comprise us. The centerpiece of the book is a series of poems revolving around a new mother, a mix of\u00a0peril and ecstasy that suffuses the entire book, whether the speaker is beholding her adopted baby, a\u00a0President finishing supper before declaring war, or an ambulance that \u201cdazzles like a cocktail ring.\u201d<\/p>\n “All You Do Is Perceive”:<\/p>\n
\nRead an Interview with Joy Katz for The Paris Review<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
\n[column col=”3\/4″]<\/p>\nAll You Do Is Perceive<\/em><\/h1>\n
Joy Katz<\/h2>\n
I was given a city, with coffee and sunlight. \"The coin-purse smell of the \nsubway,\" I wrote. In the mornings policemen would stand, lightstruck\nand pleasured, over trays of danish. Mornings I wrote and workmen\nraised up their nets. Hallelujah the brick, the debris! I was given a city!\nThe city got between me and God.\n\nI was given a house. The curtains breathed over wide sills. There was a \nleaf in the middle of the floor, I loved the crispness of the leaf. I loved\nthe privacy of sills. The sills sailed, I fell into the sills. The sills got \nbetween me and God. \n\nI was given a mud hut. The walls curved to meet the ceiling like a\ntongue curves to make a word.\n\nI was given God, with salt and sweet together. I was given a piece of\nmeat. I loved the flesh. I was given bread only. I was given only water.\nI loved the coolness of the water. The water got between me and the\nfeast.\n\nI had an empty plate and there was the color of it. I cannot even describe\nthe color of it.\n\nI was given a cell with a window. There was a certain light at evening.\n\nI was given nothing but air, and the air dazzled.<\/pre>\n