{"id":2323,"date":"2013-08-21T19:29:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T19:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/?page_id=2323"},"modified":"2022-12-22T11:55:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T16:55:15","slug":"small-porcelain-head","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/small-porcelain-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Porcelain Head"},"content":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″]\"Small<\/a><\/p>\n

paper \u2022 72 pages \u2022 15.95
\nISBN-13:\u00a0978-1-935536-27-7<\/p>\n

Add to Cart<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/column]<\/p>\n

Small Porcelain Head<\/em> by Allison Benis White was a finalist for the California Book Award and the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Poetry in 2014.<\/span><\/h5>\n

Small Porcelain Head<\/em><\/h1>\n

Allison Benis White<\/h1>\n

Winner of the Levis Prize in Poetry<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

From the rudderless space of raw grief, the urgent poems in\u00a0Small Porcelain Head<\/em>\u00a0navigate the intangibility of death through tangible objects and artifacts. \u201cWhat is left but obsession, handling the object over and over? My hands fit around her waist.\u201d Specifically, these poems concern themselves with lines from a found suicide note and with dolls, whose incessant physicality seems to mock the transience of life: \u201cThe arm is wood and narrows into the wrist\u2026to have one thing I love carved from everything.\u201d The suicide note lingers as a final conversation and a final plea: \u201cPlease forgive me. I pray and can\u2019t make it stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

A pained edge of franticness cuts through\u00a0Small Porcelain Head\u00a0<\/em>as we witness the speaker\u2019s struggle to function within the void left by death: \u201cNot to let go or have to.<\/i>\u201d And with death, too, comes the questioning of God who, in these poems, might be \u201ceverything\u2026this emptiness and eyelids that close when her head is tipped back\u201d or who might be nothing, \u201conly white streamers left over from evening, collected like women who have fainted.\u201d In the wake of a death when God is an uncertainty, these poems long for \u201cthe outline of a star, so there was something to touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Small Porcelain Head<\/em>:<\/p>\n

<\/pre>\n
What is left but obsession, handling the
\nobject over and over? My hands fit around
\nher waist.Unbuttoning, I wanted nothing to happen
\nor the same thing to happen forever in the
\nsame place.<\/p>\n
Although it is better, it is impossible to
\nmiss one thing or when you go, to miss
\nyourself.<\/p>\n
Soon the object must grow or become
\ninvisible, so familiar it is so hollow you are
\ninside.<\/p>\n
I have lost all hope for myself, she wrote,
\nmeaning there is one coat left which has
\nfailed.<\/p>\n
We have already undressed. Once I thought
\nwhat could happen was only what I could
\nimagine.<\/p>\n
About the Author<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read an Interview with Allison Benis White for 32 Poems<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[column col=”1\/4″] paper \u2022 72 pages \u2022 15.95 ISBN-13:\u00a0978-1-935536-27-7 Add to Cart [\/column] Small Porcelain Head by Allison Benis White was a finalist for the California Book Award and the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Poetry in 2014. Small Porcelain Head Allison Benis White Winner of the Levis Prize in Poetry From the rudderless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2323","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18860,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2323\/revisions\/18860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}