Stone for an Eye

Karen Craigo

• Publisher: The Kent State University Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781612773988
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

"These 'stone' poems by Karen Craigo are reminiscent of W.S. Merwin's deep image poems or Vasko Popa's surrealist 'pebble' poems. But Craigo does Merwin and Popa one better. She manages to create an sustain a complex and shifting personal mythos without sacrificing the mystery and evocative force of the focusing image. Popa's 'pebbles' chanted a mean, gutteral, one-syllable song, but Craigo's 'stones' belt out whole operas. A brilliant debut."-George Looney

CONTENTS

	Acknowledgments
I.	“You won’t live to write”
II.	“If I were a rock,”
III.	“A stone never feels”
IV.	“Today at the office someone”
V.	“Some days everything”
VI.	“I like to think it’s mica”
VII.	“After a hard day,”
VIII.	“For days I’ve carried”
IX.	“where is its mouth”
X.	“I wanted to touch you but had”
XI.	“Let’s say my nose is a stone:”
XII.	“Often you’ll take one, bright”
XIII.	“The rock rolling”
XIV.	“Lately I’ve been forgetting”
XV.	“I can’t seem to step into”
XVI.	“Stone, teach me”
XVII.	“In a great city”
XVIII.	“Because a stone has”
XIX.	“Say I swallowed this stone.”
XX.	“Because it is constant,”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Poem II (“If I were a rock,”) first appeared in the journal Lake Effect. Poem IX (“where is its mouth”) first appeared in Indiana Review. I am grateful for the editors’ support. Thanks, too, to the Ohio Arts Council, to the Fine Arts Work Center, and to supportive family, friends, and colleagues.

I.

You won’t live to write

an elegy for a stone.

While you’re here, then, praise

it for its patience. Love

t...