{"id":3171,"date":"2013-08-27T21:01:23","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T21:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/?page_id=3171"},"modified":"2022-12-08T12:05:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T17:05:51","slug":"in-a-beautiful-country","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/in-a-beautiful-country\/","title":{"rendered":"In a Beautiful Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″]\"In<\/a><\/p>\n

paper \u2022 120 pages \u2022 15.95
\nISBN-13:\u00a0978-1-935536-11-6<\/p>\n

Add to Cart<\/a>
\n[\/column]<\/p>\n

In a Beautiful Country<\/em><\/h1>\n

Kevin Prufer<\/h2>\n

In a Beautiful Country<\/em>, Kevin Prufer\u2019s fifth collection, examines America\u2019s suburbs and exurbs\u00a0where \u201cThe thrown newspaper fails \/ to reach the steps.\u201d Taking place beside hospital beds and amid\u00a0outlet malls, within earshot of military bases and in light of horror movies, these poems mourn the\u00a0loss of parents, friends, and our sense of our nation. A follow-up to the critically acclaimed National\u00a0Anthem<\/em> (Publishers\u2019 Weekly<\/em> 5 Best Poetry Books of 2008, Poets\u2019 Prize Finalist), In a Beautiful\u00a0Country<\/em> takes us into the new century carrying our gasmasks and our pulsebombs. \u201cGive them to your children, they\u2019re useless now\u201d intones a God as unable to understand human dejection as we are\u00a0to comprehend His plans\u2014or to know the lives of distant strangers who have \u201cfallen that morning or\u00a0early afternoon, \/ according to numerous conflicting reports.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Beautiful Country<\/em> offers a bittersweet love song for the possibility of a country that has become\u00a0a military complex where familiarity makes the gun\u2019s \u201cclick of metal in the chamber\u201d sound softer\u00a0than \u201cthe plummet of leaves.\u201d Yet amid causes for despair, these poems hope for futurity and\u00a0posterity. Turning to the ballad-like rhythms of Thomas Gray, Prufer critiques romanticized visions\u00a0of art while asserting poetry\u2019s role in citizenship. In the final poem \u201cPost Script,\u201d poems and receipts\u00a0and secretaries and snow flakes blend together: \u201cHere are the poems I have gathered \/ and this is the receipt.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Love Poem,” from In a Beautiful Country:<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll make you a bomb. First the booster gas canister,
\nthen the heat shield, then the radium case, which, yes,
\nis shaped like a peanut. I\u2019ll make you a bomb,
\nfirst the heat field, then the lenses that drive
\nthe implosion, and last the radiation space, which,
\nyes, is shaped like a peanut. I\u2019ll make you a bomb,
\nfirst the space filler, then the glass lenses,
\nwhich, careful, may implode. I\u2019ll make you a swan,
\nfirst a crease here, then a crease there, a quick tuck
\nfor the wings, an explosion of flight. I\u2019ll make you a swan,
\none-two-three folds and now it\u2019s done, but it will not fly,
\nits wing tips burning like fuses. I\u2019ll make you a dress,
\ndon\u2019t you love me? a nip and a tuck and three pins
\nto hold it tight. I\u2019ll make you a little white dress,
\ninside it your heart says bang, bang, bang<\/em>, your mind
\nlike a swan\u2019s. Careful, it\u2019s shaped like a peanut,
\ncareful of when it decays, careful, it may implode.
\nDon\u2019t you love me? Look what I\u2019ve made you.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
About the Author<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″] paper \u2022 120 pages \u2022 15.95 ISBN-13:\u00a0978-1-935536-11-6 Add to Cart [\/column] In a Beautiful Country Kevin Prufer In a Beautiful Country, Kevin Prufer\u2019s fifth collection, examines America\u2019s suburbs and exurbs\u00a0where \u201cThe thrown newspaper fails \/ to reach the steps.\u201d Taking place beside hospital beds and amid\u00a0outlet malls, within earshot of military bases and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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-3171","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3171","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18725,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3171\/revisions\/18725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}