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.

    Boss Cupid: Poems
    Boss Cupid: Poems
    Boss Cupid: Poems
    Ebook120 pages26 minutes

    Boss Cupid: Poems

    By Thom Gunn

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A great poet's freshest, most provocative book.

    He dreams at the center of a closed system,
    Like the prison system, or a system of love,
    Where folktale, recipe, and household custom
    Refer back to the maze that they are of.
    --from "A System: PCP, or Angel Dust"

    Taste and appetite are contraposed in Boss Cupid, the twelfth book of poems by the quintessential San Francisco poet, who is also the quintessential craftsman and quintessentially a love poet, though not of quintessential love.Variations on how we are ruled by our desires, these poems make a startling and eloquent gloss on wanton want, moving freely from the story of King David and Bathsheba to Arthur Rimbaud's diet to the tastes of Jeffrey Dahmer. As warm and intelligent as it is ribald and cunning, this collection of Thom Gunn's is his richest yet.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 1, 2007
    ISBN9780374706050
    Boss Cupid: Poems
    Author

    Thom Gunn

    Thom Gunn (1929–2004) was educated at Cambridge University and wrote his first collection of poems, Fighting Terms (1954), while he was still an undergraduate. He moved to Northern California in 1954 and taught at American universities until his death. His last collection was Boss Cupid (FSG, 2000).

    Read more from Thom Gunn

    Related to Boss Cupid

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Rails

      Dec 1, 2021

      The Rails
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Rare and Beautiful Creature: On the Life and Work of Frank Stanford

      Sep 22, 2017

      It seems fair to suggest that the anxiety of influence—a creative necessity for so many poets—may have failed to penetrate the mobile-homed hamlets where Stanford roamed, rambled, mused, and wrote with prolific intensity. The post A Rare and Beautifu

      5 min read

    • Article

      Ada Limón And The Poetry Of Rebellion

      Apr 7, 2022

      You know what? I’m 45, and I get to write whatever poems I want. The post Ada Limón and the Poetry of Rebellion appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Jesse Nathan

      Jun 8, 2021

      Young gray cat puddled under the boxwood,Only the eyes alert. Appressed to dirt. That hissThe hiss of the grasses hissing What shouldWhat should. Blank road shimmers. On days like this,My mind, you hardlySeem to be.On days like these. No, no. See tha

      1 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2020

      She was a security guard and even though her uniform was black I could seeIt was covered in blood, the marble floor was covered in blood, it wasSlowly pooling out from the space where HER HAND used to beOh my god, I said, then I started to say, YOUR

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Ties That Bind

      Apr 13, 2023

      The Ties That Bind
      22 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: November 2020

      Nov 5, 2020

      Stop obsessively refreshing the New York Times's elections page, and check out these new books of poetry by Alice Quinn, Margaret Atwood, Yi Lei, Karina Borowicz, Valzhyna Mort, and Paul Celan. The post Must-Read Poetry: November 2020 appeared first

      6 min read

    • Article

      Diaspora Sonnets

      Sep 1, 2022

      The old men drink their spritzers and gossipunder awnings. Red hued and blustery, like two roosters on the side of a road.Skyward they crane their necks and laugh, sometimes they wonder about kings and future kingsand how the muscles peer from their

      2 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2020

      He kept me through childhood.There was a reasonhe kept me from sin like a biscuitwarming in the oven.It’s okay I tell the rain to keep him a theorybut bring him downonce in a while.It’s okay to be honest or selfishbut find the spot where you sinka li

      2 min read

    • Article

      Elephant In The City Of Blind

      Feb 6, 2020

      Elephant In The City Of Blind
      5 min read

    • Article

      Writing Prompts and Exercises

      Feb 14, 2018

      Suggested Reading: A Primer for Poets & Readers of Poetry (W. W. Norton, February 2018) by Gregory Orr The author of a dozen books of poetry as well as three books about poetry, including Poetry as Survival (University of Georgia Press, 2002), Orr de

      2 min read

    • Article

      All The Gay Saints

      May 1, 2020

      All The Gay Saints
      4 min read

    • Article

      Dark Hooks

      Nov 1, 2021

      The critical canon has spent decades wringing its hands over Sylvia Plath’s appropriation of both Jewish identity and the particular tragedy of the Holocaust. In 1969, George Steiner wrote in his essay “In Extremis” that Plath “… was a child, plump a

      9 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Jennifer Barber

      Jun 8, 2021

      At first puzzlement, then joy. My baby in the making—surely my last—would, like a ferry heading for a wharf,know what to do along the way. The multiplying cells, the chemistryof contentment spreading through my blood: I was as ready for her birthas I

      1 min read

    • Article

      Ada Limón

      Jun 8, 2021

      Three guys in fluorescent vests are taking downa tree along my neighbor’s fence line, which is, of course, my fence line, with my two round-eyed snakes and my wandering raccoon. That is, if you go in for ownership. My, my, my.For weeks the tree they’

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Boss Cupid

    4/5

    9 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Smart and raw, these poems are about desire in all its' forms, both admirable and frightening. Gunn was one of only a few contemporary poets who are comfortable writing in form, and that versatility shows here. Unlike much contemporary form poetry, though, these poems aren't burdened by restraint--instead, they seem to celebrate life, and love. While some of the poems require some knowledge of biblical lore or classical mythology for a full appreciation of the content, many of them are far more accessible in nature, focusing on scene and character instead of building from other stories. Throughout the poems, however, Gunn's quick rhythms and perfectly formed descriptions are worth reading and re-reading, particularly when his poems are focused in on single short scenes and the results and questions of desire, as is so often the case in this collection.

    Book preview

    Boss Cupid - Thom Gunn

    2abook_preview_excerpt.htmlUU͎6 ~[Erldl@OAc #~-K_/OҏZ)~?0q8CQ=?~.R;Em)[B^Ȓ='r4(8_s nM{*1ee!KH: ^Z:զZ` )wLzaC_jqAFua=JL4|QKhOҐ';x1NK2QstRTkE'W_lO/IվZfn_o-T4QKAz؄eK h]b%& vݕC8Q(@ڄA40`#zmxUXsSUw48:8h E P.WfN?N"}2_9Θ޺ev:AvKz-,i j>Rr.ɫժ]\wNZ "ɵ_3j qxzaC3)VS8m F' ooD \@xa z=Νzer`i ܿӹj]tE)蠗Rvȋ >%`洞Z4 "6jOnz3FlF ij.3ZC(BLV䷇;6 x0@y0K.@[k>f33r\lfxrn\gQ_1^Dߏ+0ϛ+^A_^TFgՖZĞ{g;S`BE[G8 ;h б^`4-u[D/8h꾙xَ
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1