The Zoo Father

Shortlisted for the 2001 T.S. Eliot Prize, this unique collection centres on a daughter's fraught relationship with her dying father, a man whose legacy to her was violence and abandonment. Rich in the imagery of the Amazonian jungle (fire ants, shaman masks, hummingbirds, shrunken heads, jaguars) these poems at once ward off and redeem the father through myriad transformations. In contrast, 'The Vineyard' series is inspired by the author's mother and by "...the last piece of wild land, / left to me by accident, by dream" - a family vineyard in France. These intense, vibrant and fiercely felt poems are sure to evoke strong responses in readers. Refusing oblique irony, quotidian props, cant or any pretensions to urban hipness, Pascale Petit takes considerable risks. With fierce courage, she not only survives the brutal facts of her past, but transmutes them, through vivid imagination, into art. The Zoo Father is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

The Strait-Jackets	p. 7
Embrace of the Electric Eel	p. 8
Self-Portrait with Fire Ants	p. 9
My Father's Voice	p. 10
The Fish Daughter	p. 11
The Lungfish Father	p. 12
My Father's Lungs	p. 14
Hummingbird	p. 16
The Shawl	p. 18
Motherfather	p. 19
Self-Portrait as a Warao Violin	p. 20
King Vulture Father	p. 21
Self-Portrait as a Were-Jaguar	p. 22
The Ant Glove	p. 24
A Wasps' Nest	p. 26
Trophy	p. 28
Father's Maps	p. 30
During the Eclipse	p. 31
My Father's Body	p. 32
My Father's Books	p. 34
Nesting	p. 36
The Wake	p. 38
The Horse Mask	p. 39
The Sea Father	p. 40
The Whale Father	p. 42
Self-Portrait as a Dugout Canoe	p. 43
Self-Portrait as a Harpy Eagle	p. 44
Amazonia	p. 45
Auburn	p. 47
My Mother's Skin	p. 48
My Octopus Mother	p. 49
The Fish Mother	p. 50
The Dolphin Father	p. 51
Self-Portrait as a Yanomami Daughter	p. 52
The Musical Archer	p. 54
The Magma Room	p. 56
My Father's Clothes	p. 57
A Parcel of Land	p. 61
Landowners	p. 62
Reverse Vineyard	p. 63
The Songs of Insects	p. 64
The Second Mazet	p. 66
A Stone Face	p. 67
Home Was a Cyanide Bottle	p. 68
Woman-Bottle	p. 69
My Mother's Tablets	p. 70
The Snake Dress	p. 71
Acknowledgements	p. 72
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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