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Elegy for a Broken Machine

Poems

Poems

By Patrick Phillips

By Patrick Phillips

By Patrick Phillips

By Patrick Phillips

Best Seller

Category: Poetry

Category: Poetry

Paperback $17.00

Sep 05, 2017 | ISBN 9780804172943

Ebook $10.99

Mar 03, 2015 | ISBN 9780385353762

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    Elegy for a Broken Machine by Patrick Phillips
    Paperback $17.00
    Sep 05, 2017 | ISBN 9780804172943

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    • Paperback $17.00

      Sep 05, 2017 | ISBN 9780804172943

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      Mar 03, 2015 | ISBN 9780385353762

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    About Elegy for a Broken Machine


    Now in paperback, this stunning collection of elegies–a finalist for the National Book Award–bears witness to the small beauties and inevitable losses of our transient life.

    Elegy for a Broken Machine is a son’s lament for his father. It takes us from the luminous world of childhood to the fluorescent glare of operating rooms and recovery wards, and into the twilight lives of those who must go on. In one poem Phillips watches his sons play “Mercy” just as he did with his brother: hands laced, the stronger pushing the other back until he grunts for mercy, “a game we played // so many times / I finally taught my sons, // not knowing what it was, / until too late, I’d done.” Phillips documents the unsung joys of midlife, the betrayals of the human body, and his realization that as the crowd of ghosts grows, we take our places, next in line. The result is a twenty-first-century memento mori, fashioned not just from loss but also from praise, and a fierce love for the world in all its ruined splendor.

    About Elegy for a Broken Machine

    The poet Patrick Phillips brings us a stunning third collection that is at its core a son’s lament for his father. This book of elegies takes us from the luminous world of childhood to the fluorescent glare of operating rooms and recovery wards, and into the twilight lives of those who must go on. In one poem Phillips watches his sons play “Mercy” just as he did with his brother: hands laced, the stronger pushing the other back until he grunts for mercy, “a game we played // so many times / I finally taught my sons, // not knowing what it was, / until too late, I’d done.” Phillips documents the unsung joys of midlife, the betrayals of the human body, and his realization that as the crowd of ghosts grows, we take our places, next in line. The result is a twenty-first-century memento mori, fashioned not just from loss but also from praise, and a fierce love for the world in all its ruined splendor.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Also by Patrick Phillips

    Blood at the Root
    See all books by Patrick Phillips

    Also by Patrick Phillips

    Blood at the Root
    See all books by Patrick Phillips

    About Patrick Phillips

    PATRICK PHILLIPS is the author of two previous poetry collections, Boy and Chattahoochee, a work of nonfiction, Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, and is translator of When We Leave Each Other: Selected Poems by the Danish writer Henrik Nordbrandt. His honors include fellowships… More about Patrick Phillips

    About Patrick Phillips

    PATRICK PHILLIPS is the author of two previous poetry collections, Boy and Chattahoochee, a work of nonfiction, Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, and is translator of When We Leave Each Other: Selected Poems by the Danish writer Henrik Nordbrandt. His honors include fellowships… More about Patrick Phillips

    Product Details

    Category: Poetry

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Knopf
    Sep 05, 2017 | 80 Pages | 5-7/8 x 8-3/8 | ISBN 9780804172943

    Category: Poetry

    Ebook | $10.99
    Published by Knopf
    Mar 03, 2015 | 80 Pages | 5-7/8 x 8-3/8 | ISBN 9780385353762

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    Awards

    National Book Award Finalist FINALIST 2015

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