Decennia

By Jan Chronister

Poems across five decades of life - the 1950s to the 1990s - by esteemed Wisconsin poet Jan Chronister.

"Chronister has fully inhabited these moments—paying full attention to each detail. She pulls us deftly through her world by rebuilding images that lead us deep into all seasons of life and place. Her ability to ground us in this world alongside her, to invite us into her head and surprise us, is the true gift of this collection."

author of 'Louder Birds', winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize

• Language: English
• Publisher: Truth Serum Press
• Release date: Oct 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781925536997

Book preview

Decennia

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by Jan Chronister

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Fifty Years in Verse

New and Selected Poems

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a Truth Serum Press eBook

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Copyright

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First published as an eBook October 2020

First published in paperback August 2020

All poems copyright © Jan Chronister

All rights reserved by the author and publisher. Except for brief excerpts used for review or scholarly purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without express written consent of the publisher or the author/s.

BP#00094

Truth Serum Press

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Truth Serum Press catalogue: http://truthserumpress.net/catalogue/

Front cover original oil painting ‘Muse’ copyright © Donna Post, used with permission

Cover design copyright © Matt Potter

ISBN:  978-1-925536-99-7

Also available in paperback  |  ISBN: 978-1-925536-98-0

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Truth Serum Press is a member of the Bequem Publishing collective

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Dedication

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To Bob –

forty-seven years and counting

Decennia

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decades disappear

I am still here

the 50s full of innocence

skirt wearing years of the 60s

weekend at Woodstock

babies in the 70s

real job in the 80s

the 90s find me mindless

caught in the system

millennium arrives

I empty the tubs we filled with water

to survive Y2K

cross fingers for

another fifty

Contents

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The 50s

Exploration

St. Thomas, Ontario, 1951

Finding Peace on Prince Edward Island

Booger Wall

Runaway

My Childhood

Independence Day

After Uncle’s Funeral

I Never Eat Strawberry Sundaes

First Grade

Life in Black and White

Highlights for Children

Rogue Planet

Dancing with Stars

Self-portrait as Tea Kettle

Bad Habit

Haying Time

Empty Grave

Family Reunion

Island Lake

Fishing

Card Table

The Blues

The 60s

Origins

Development

Money and Stars

Scarlet Drive

Quicksilver

Object Lesson

Snowbound

Cusp

Junior Prom

Thoughts on the Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh

Milwaukee Public Library, 1967

Because

Stockings & Overdue Library Books

Decorating Habits of the Male Sexual Predator

What It’s Like

Milwaukee Bus Ride

Thou Shalt Not

1969

Anniversary of Eve

Woodstock

El Matador

Nine is the Number of the Hermit

Encounter

Twentysomething

Sign of the Times

The 70s

When I Had Sunflowers for Eyes

Florida Blues

Locked Out

Cold Bread

Tallahassee Morning

Another of My Nine Lives

Observatory

Tallahassee Nancy

All Walt Disney’s Fault

Segregation

Still in Alabama

Dancing on My Twenty-fourth Birthday

Horticulture

Newcomers

In Oulu

Winter Wood

November 10, 1975

For Rachel

Paradise Lost

The 80s

Northern Lights

Home

Robert Burns Recalled

Ninth Month Blues

Full Moon on the Brule

Volcano

Solar Eclipse

You May Already Have Won

Encyclopedias

Little House

At the Dump

Tree Psychology

Job Interview

Cutting My Luck

End of Day

Is This a Mid-life Crisis?

In Cutbank

Before Katrina

Letter to Myself at Forty

The 90s

Homecoming

Car Crash

Three Minutes

Madeline Island, August 1996

For My Son

I Got a