Surprise Castle
I Was Working: Poems

I Was Working: Poems - Paperback

$12.99
$17.95
-28%
Quantity
01

Pay over time for orders over $35.00 with

Availability:In StockContributor:Ariel YelenSeries:Princeton Contemporary Poets #181Publish date:2024-10-08Pages:80
Language:EnglishPublisher:Princeton University PressISBN-13:9780691264066ISBN-10:691264066UPC:9780691264066Book Category:Poetry, Literary CollectionsBook Subcategory:American, Women AuthorsSize:9.21 x 6.14 x 0.19 inchesWeight:0.2998Product ID:SCB5RR8ZYG

A remarkable book of poems that mixes humor about the absurdities of office life with moments of Zen-like wisdom

Seeking to find a song of the self that can survive or even thrive amid the mundane routines of work, Ariel Yelen's lyrics include wry reflections on the absurdities and abjection of being a poet who is also an office worker and commuter in New York. In the poems' dialogues between labor and autonomy, the beeping of a microwave in the staff lounge becomes an opportunity for song, the poet writes from a cubicle as it is being sawed in half, and the speaker of the title poem decides "to quit everything except work," sacrificing her life and loved ones to bury herself in her four jobs, striving at any cost to find relief from the attempt to both have a life and be a good worker--"No one was happy to see me, and so / at last I could work. No one said it's okay. It wasn't / okay, thus my work flourished." Despite such discontents, I Was Working finds humor, play, and even joy in its original and compelling search for the possibility of self-liberation.
Language:EnglishPublisher:Princeton University PressISBN-13:9780691264066ISBN-10:691264066UPC:9780691264066Book Category:Poetry, Literary CollectionsBook Subcategory:American, Women AuthorsSize:9.21 x 6.14 x 0.19 inchesWeight:0.2998Product ID:SCB5RR8ZYG
Ariel Yelen is a poet whose work has been published in Poetry, BOMB, the American Poetry Review, Washington Square Review, and other magazines.
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Contributor(s)

Ariel Yelen

Free shipping on orders over $75. Standard shipping takes 3-7 business days. Returns accepted within 30 days of purchase.

Recently Viewed

View All