Cussing Lesson

In his second collection of poems, Stephen Cushman explores, appraises, and celebrates many different forms of connections -- domestic, social, historical, and religious. With an easygoing voice, an engaging humor, and a sure understanding of his craft, he addresses subjects from marriage and travel to urbanism and the Civil War, illustrating the rewards of a sensitive regard for the junctions in everyday life and language.

Invoking "all the lessons they ever taught me / about ordination in the ordinary, " he reflects on members of his family, affirming attachments of marriage and blood. Beyond those immediate ties lie the connections of history -- which take him to ancient Egypt, wartime Virginia, and Greece under Nazi occupation -- as well as the broader bonds of struggling to love neighbors and strangers: a panhandler on a city street, an inmate in a county jail, a nun at a convent window, a fellow passenger in a subway car. In trying to make and maintain any of these links, Cushman avoids lapses of sentimental piety, admitting instead, in the words of the

At the Recycling Center	p. 1
No Place like Home	p. 3
Made on a Monday	p. 4
Vernacular Prayer	p. 6
Skirmish at Rio Hill	p. 7
Once Seen	p. 8
Laying On of Hands	p. 9
Bread and Butter	p. 10
Your Health to the Village Drunk	p. 11
Egyptian Fun Facts	p. 13
Spruce Knob Transfiguration	p. 14
Belly Dancer	p. 15
Ecclesiasticus at the Playground	p. 16
Lingerie Department	p. 17
Peace between the Sexes	p. 18
The Woman Taken in Adultery	p. 19
View from Lee's Camp	p. 21
Make the Bed	p. 22
Personals	p. 23
Five O'Clock Shadow	p. 24
Happy Motoring	p. 25
Baker Street Station	p. 26
Whenever I Smoke a Cigar	p. 27
A Rainbow Unable	p. 28
New Mattress	p. 29
To a Son His First Time at Camp	p. 30
Chess Made Simple for a Five-Year-Old Boy	p. 31
The Alabama Sharecropper's Wife	p. 32
Sister of Mercy, London	p. 34
Short Lifeline	p. 35
Greetings	p. 36
Field Analyzer	p. 37
From Twelve Years and Above	p. 39
Marble Head of a Young Woman	p. 40
Windchill Warning	p. 41
Second Opinion	p. 42
And You Visited Me	p. 43
Cussing Lesson	p. 44
Small-Craft Warning	p. 46
No One with Heart Trouble	p. 47
Sea Glass for a Second Son	p. 48
The Old Man's Menagerie	p. 49
The Cup of Salvation	p. 50
Many Happy Returns	p. 51
Notes	p. 52
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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