The poems in Arctic Revival are formally masterful, but wrought with a very light hand. A sense of emotional heft at the end of a poem is in part accomplished by a glancing, perfect rhymed couplet. These unique and powerful poems make me want to know, and read more.
—Elizabeth Alexander
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Arctic Revival by Callie Siskel
Winner of the 2014 PSA Chapbook Fellowship
Arctic Revival by Callie Siskel, selected and introduced by Elizabeth Alexander.
Edition: 500 Copies of the winning books were printed by the Prolific Group and designed by Gabriele Wilson.
$8.00
Giverny
Nature never stops.
—Claude Monet
There's nothing in the garden
as yellow as the dining room.
Nothing as opaque.
A single buttery shade
covers the walls and closes
around the furniture.
Two lengths of rope
tie off the room from the house
as though warning of wet paint.
It's lacquer and sunlight
through the patio doors that give
the illusion of liquid
where there's none,
where everything is set.
Even the yellow table,
draped in white
and the eight cane-back chairs,
each one pushed in
to a willowware plate
and a crystal glass
we couldn't raise.
You were my father
for nearly thirteen years.
I asked you why
we weren't allowed
to touch anything that day,
but you could not have known
the room would go unchanged,
and we would be outlasted
by a heavy coat of paint.
All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
