No One Leaves the World Unhurt

By John Foy

John Foy’s newest collection is a tour de force of formal poetry, offering a blend of wit, cleverness, and deftness. Working in the lineage of poets like Billy Collins, Robert Frost, Frank O’Hara, W. H. Auden, and Elizabeth Bishop, Foy probes everyday experiences to generate compassionate, clever, and deeply knowing verse. While moments in No One Leaves the World Unhurt may appear absurd or even funny on the surface—such as a psychological exploration of the Lord of the Rings character Gollum—beneath this lightheartedness lies a tone that is grim and foreboding. Foy satirizes various elements of contemporary society, reflecting on war, wandering through the Museum of Sex in New York with his wife, and plucking apart idiomatic speech, which he breaks down, saying “It is what it is. / It’s not what it might have been.” Influenced by pop art and fine art and his New York home, which forms the backdrop of many of these poems, Foy’s vibrant collection is simultaneously philosophical, whimsical, serious, and searching.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Autumn House Press
• Release date: Mar 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781938769788

Book preview

no one leaves the world unhurt

JOHN FOY

pittsburgh

Copyright © 2021 by John Foy

All rights reserved. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews or essays. For information about permission to reprint, contact Autumn House Press, 5530 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206.

Autumn House Press and Autumn House are registered trademarks owned by Autumn House Press, a nonprofit corporation whose mission is the publication and promotion of poetry and other fine literature.

Autumn House Press receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Text and cover design: Chiquita Babb

ISBN: 978-1-938769-75-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020947432

All Autumn House books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the international standards for permanent books intended for purchase by libraries.

ISBN-13: 978-1-938769-78-8 (electronic)

For Majô, Catherine, and Chris

Contents

one

The Payment Plan

Alan Kurdi

Report Card

Gollum

Making War

Into the Mountains

Under Fire

Cordite

Clip

Concussion Grenades

two

Prayer

Cup

One Hundred Pounds of Myrrh

Contemplative

Coyotes

The Veery

Wheelbarrow

Leaving São Paulo

Out of Body

Night Riff

three

Funeral

The Stinker

It Is What It Is

The Haunted Mansion

The Partridge Family

Headless Barbie Commission

Boxer Shorts

It’s Not OK

Going Mad

Unlocking the Incredible Power of Small Stones

four

The Museum of Sex

five

The Television Set

Long Live Rock

The Bank

Crane

Blizzard

Route 17

Cross and Sphere

Bile

Cost

I Entertained a Thought

Notes

Acknowledgments

one

the payment plan

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A DNR is included in the plan,

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