Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
The Reinvention of the Human Hand by Paul Vermeersch
Add The Reinvention of the Human Hand to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf
Read An Excerpt

Look Inside

Read An Excerpt

The Reinvention of the Human Hand

By Paul Vermeersch

By Paul Vermeersch

By Paul Vermeersch

By Paul Vermeersch

Best Seller

Category: Poetry

Category: Poetry

Paperback $15.50

Mar 16, 2010 | ISBN 9780771087431

Ebook $11.99

Apr 30, 2010 | ISBN 9781551993546

All Formats
+
    The Reinvention of the Human Hand by Paul Vermeersch
    Paperback $15.50
    Mar 16, 2010 | ISBN 9780771087431

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (1) +

    Paperback
    –

    • Paperback $15.50

      Mar 16, 2010 | ISBN 9780771087431

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook

      Apr 30, 2010 | ISBN 9781551993546

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Ebook:

    About The Reinvention of the Human Hand

    Paul Vermeersch’s new poems give a present-day voice to primitive song, and restore to us a dawn-time severity that cuts through modern evasions. They go beyond sophistication to reveal the passionate and suffering animal within. The Reinvention of the Human Hand is a poetry of the human body’s experience, of a primal being that struggles to assert itself, or perhaps just survive, in a world of metals, plastics, electronics. Here is the most far-reaching work yet by the acclaimed author of Burn, The Fat Kid, and Between the Walls. Vermeersch has always gone in search of understanding. Now his discoveries speak of a human world exhausted by its divorce from an animal past, terrified of retreating into early places it never truly left, astonished by the forgotten possibilities disclosed there.

    About The Reinvention of the Human Hand

    Paul Vermeersch’s new poems give a present-day voice to primitive song, and restore to us a dawn-time severity that cuts through modern evasions. They go beyond sophistication to reveal the passionate and suffering animal within. The Reinvention of the Human Hand is a poetry of the human body’s experience, of a primal being that struggles to assert itself, or perhaps just survive, in a world of metals, plastics, electronics. Here is the most far-reaching work yet by the acclaimed author of Burn, The Fat Kid, and Between the Walls. Vermeersch has always gone in search of understanding. Now his discoveries speak of a human world exhausted by its divorce from an animal past, terrified of retreating into early places it never truly left, astonished by the forgotten possibilities disclosed there.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Also by Paul Vermeersch

    Between the Walls
    See all books by Paul Vermeersch

    Also by Paul Vermeersch

    Between the Walls
    See all books by Paul Vermeersch

    About Paul Vermeersch

    Paul Vermeersch is the author of three previous collections of poetry and the editor of The I.V. Lounge Reader and The Al Purdy A-frame Anthology. His writing has appeared frequently in the Globe and Mail and been featured on CBC… More about Paul Vermeersch

    About Paul Vermeersch

    Paul Vermeersch is the author of three previous collections of poetry and the editor of The I.V. Lounge Reader and The Al Purdy A-frame Anthology. His writing has appeared frequently in the Globe and Mail and been featured on CBC… More about Paul Vermeersch

    Product Details

    Category: Poetry

    Paperback | $15.50
    Published by McClelland & Stewart
    Mar 16, 2010 | 88 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9780771087431

    Category: Poetry

    Ebook | $11.99
    Published by McClelland & Stewart
    Apr 30, 2010 | 88 Pages | ISBN 9781551993546
    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    "Vermeersch is one of Canada’s best young poets. [His poems] explore the tension between the natural world and the artifice of our society, and the collision between the public sphere and the secret corners of our private lives."
    — Vancouver Province

    Awards

    Trillium Book Award FINALIST 2010

    Table Of Contents

    I
    The Painted Beasts of Lascaux
    A Scorpion in Alcohol
    Ode to Amoeba proteus
    Bosch Landscape 2010
    Hands
    The Formation of the Pack
    Altarpiece with False Teeth and Parkinson’s Disease
    The Sadness Will Last Forever
    Twenty-one Days with a Baboon Heart
    Another Effect of Global Warming
    Elegy for Paul Winchell
    Ape
    Boys Who Envy Werewolves
     
    II
    I Am Happy to Live in an Age of Plenty
    Basic Instructions for Anaesthesia
    Old Punk
    Prayer to a Saint
    Smoke
    In the Glorious Absence of Gods
    Last of the Blondes
    The Threatened Swan
    Ringtones
    Prosthetic Leg in Storage
    A Photograph of the Human Retina
     
    III
    Sorrow for Frogsong
    In Joseph Merrick’s London
    The Marriage of the Nuclei
    Dogstar
    Love as an Argument in Theoretical Physics
    A Glass Eye Finds Its Purpose
    The Reinvention of the Human Hand
    He Considers the Possibility that None of This Is Real
    This Is Where Your Life Begins
    Three Anthropomorphic Studies
    Beautiful and Swift
    The Demolition of Heaven
    Cloud Formation like a Map of the World
    Lost Things
     
    Notes
    Acknowledgements

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Get the latest updates about Paul Vermeersch
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and understand that Penguin Random House collects certain categories of personal information for the purposes listed in that policy, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information and retains personal information in accordance with the policy. You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime.
    Dismiss
    Thanks!
    Something awesome is on its way.
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Raise kids who love to read

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

     An online magazine for today’s home cook

    An online magazine for today’s home cook