The House of Metaphor

Poems

Pamela Cranston

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781666760286
  9781666760293
• eBook ISBN:
  9781666760309
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

The poems in Pamela Cranston's The House of Metaphor are an intoxicating blend of spirit, edginess, gravity, play, and paradox, gifts we are given from a mind having what Einstein called "a holy curiosity." With subjects ranging from singing potatoes to angels and assassins, slave and master to moving recollections of her own childhood and her experience as a priest ministering to hospice patients, the book pulsates nonstop with the poet's vigor and variety, powered through her boundless imagination and lyrical intensity. Everywhere are surprises, and Cranston's choice words and marvelous metaphors seem to have been joyfully plucked from the heavens.

Table of contents

• TITLE PAGE
• REVIEWS
• PERMISSIONS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• WASHING HANDS WITH FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
• MY MUSE
• THE HOUSE OF METAPHOR
• ABANDONED
• PHANTOM MAIL
• PIG LAZARUS or the END of Bar-B-Que
• SINGING POTATOES
• ROAD INSTRUCTIONS
• TAKING TOLL
• BEAVER MEADOW FALLS
• A POEM FOR CONNOR MCLAUGHLIN
• MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT BATS
• THE LINCHPIN
• THE HUNGRY HEART
• TWENTY-TWENTY VISION
• MY GRANDFATHER’S TYPEWRITER
• MY PARENTS’ WEDDING PHOTO, 1950
• WHAT WATER DOES
• UNCLE JACK, HOME FROM BOOT CAMP
• THE HIDING PLACE
• LEAVING CAMP
• THE COPLAND SUITE
• FOOLING DEATH
• MY FATHER’S LAST CHRISTMAS, 2016
• TIPPING POINT
• A MURDER OF CROWS
• FIRE IN PARADISE
• THE FIRST CIRCLE OF HELL
• DARKNESS AT NOON
• THE ASSASSIN
• BARBWIRE BABY JESUS
• AT ST. ANTHONY’S SOUP KITCHEN
• COMING TO THE TABLE
• FOOTWASH BAPTISTS OF BOYLE COUNTY
• I WOKE TO HEAR A RAVEN SING
• OWL, FISHING AT NIGHT
• THE LATHE OF JOY
• SNOWY OWL
• ARRIBADA: THE OLIVE RIDLEY SEA TURTLES ARRIVE
• NIGHT OF TWO MOONS
• THE BELL RINGERS OF BREDWARDINE
• OUR LADY BURNING, APRIL 2019
• DEAD LETTER DROP
• BEGGAR’S FEAST
• SAYING MASS WITH ANGELS
• WHEN A SAINT GROWS OLD
• THE JONAH COMPLEX
• CAPEL-Y-FfIN
• ODE TO VELÁZQUEZ’S DWARF AND OTHERS
• A VISITATION
• IN A DARK WOOD
• LINES INSPIRED BY BACH’S LAST FUGUE
• WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
• COMPLINE, GETHSEMANI ABBEY, 1973
• THE TOUCHSTONE
• THE LURE FROM A DISTANT ROOM
• WIDOW’S MITE
• Pietà
• THE REAL WORK
• HOW TRUE POEMS BEGIN
• WHEN I’M AN OLD WOMAN
• QUIRKY PAINTINGS OF CHRIST’S ASCENSION
• LOVE’S NECESSITY
• ST. FRANCIS XAVIER MISSION
• SABBATH SOIL
• PRAYER
• WHAT BODY?
• MASSAGE SESSION
• AT THE VILLA
• THE LATECOMER
• THE ZEN OF DYING
• GOD’S SLOW ANSWER
• ALL I CAN DO
• MORTAL SHAME
• LOST
• I THOUGHT IT WAS A TOILET
• FLOATING NOWHERE FAST
• SWIMMING LESSON
• DYING TIME
• ANNA’S RISING
• AUTOPSY
• NO MORE BE GRIEVED
• BLOSSOMING INTO LIGHT
• GOING HOME TO SPRINGTOWN
• DYING IS A WILD NIGHT
• ODE TO TEX MCKLEAN
• CROSSING THE LINE
• KADDISH POEM
• ELEGY FOR LYNDSEY
• NOTES
• AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY