Begin with a Failed Body: Poems

By Natalie J. Graham

This collection of poems begins rooted in the landscape of the U.S. South as it voices singular lives carved out of immediate and historical trauma. While these poems dwell in the body, often meditating on its frailty and desire, they also question the weight that literary, historical, and religious icons are expected to bear. Within the vast scope of this volume, the poems arc from a pig farmer’s funeral to Georges de la Tour’s paintings and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. With an ear tuned to the lift and lilt of speech, they wring song from sorrow and plant in every dirge a seed of jubilation. Rich in clarity and decisive in her attention to image, Natalie J. Graham writes resonant, lush poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Release date: Sep 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9780820351193

Natalie J. Graham

NATALIE GRAHAM is an associate professor of African American studies at California State University, Fullerton.

Book preview

Winner of the 2016 Cave Canem Poetry Prize

SELECTED BY KWAME DAWES

Inaugurated in 1999 with Natasha Trethewey’s Domestic Work, selected by Rita Dove, the Cave Canem Poetry Prize is an annual first-book award dedicated to the discovery of exceptional manuscripts by African American poets.

Founded in 1996 by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady, Cave Canem Foundation is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional development of African American poets. The organization’s community has grown from an initial gathering of twenty-seven poets to become an influential movement with a renowned faculty; a high-achieving fellowship of more than four hundred; and programs delivered in New York City, at the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh and Greensburg), and nationally.

www.cavecanempoets.org

BEGIN WITH A FAILED BODY

BEGIN WITH A FAILED BODY

Poems by Natalie J. Graham

The University of Georgia Press     Athens

Published by the University of Georgia Press

Athens, Georgia 30602

www.ugapress.org

© 2017 by Natalie J. Graham

All rights reserved

Designed by Erin Kirk New

Set in Garamond Premier Pro

Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore, Inc.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for

permanence and durability of the Committee on

Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the

Council on Library Resources.

Most University of Georgia Press titles are

available from popular e-book vendors.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Graham, Natalie J., author.

Title: Begin with a failed body : poems / by Natalie J. Graham.

Description: Athens : University of Georgia Press, [2017] |

    Series: Cave Canum Poetry Prize

Identifiers: LCCN 2017008992 | ISBN 9780820351209 (softcover :

    acid-free paper) | ISBN 9780820351193 (ebook)

Classification: LCC PS3607.r3465 a6 2017 | DDC 811/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017008992

For Jo Ann Woods Graham

Contents

Foreword, by Kwame Dawes

I.           Junior Choir Recessional

The Palm Beach Story

The Florida Motel

Leaping Fire in Princeville Park

Palatka, Florida

Holiday Spread

Uncle Bubba’s Funeral

Fairy Tale

Certain Immutable Laws

Raised for Testing

Song, without a Musical Note for My Granddaddy

Vacation Bible School

The Idea of Order

But, Mama

To Hurt You (Reprise)

What Might Not Break Through

Underneath There Is a Wound

The Way of the Shrine

Partial Afterword, Waffle House Hours

Intersection

Revolving Door

Domestic Figure

The First Hike

II.           Judas Kiss

Last Lament for Judas

Gallery Songs

Jesus and the Prairie

Something Sacred

Magdalen with the Smoking Flame

Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (Chiaroscuro Reprise)

Cinderella Sends Her Godmother Away

The Temptation of Saint Anthony

The Threshing Floor of the Redeemer

Peter Prays after the Crucifixion

Black Willow

Naked, in a Stormy Passage

Death Song for Zong

Announcement

River Water

When the Vendor Dies

In the Beginning, Death

Ophelia by Water

All Names Are Curses

An Element of Blank (Ophelia Reprise)

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Some of my worst wounds

have healed into poems.

A few well-placed

stabs in the back

have released a singing