No Sign

By Peter Balakian

New poetry collection from Peter Balakian, author of Ozone Journal, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
 
In these poems, Peter Balakian wrestles with national and global cultural and political realities, including challenges for the human species amid planetary transmutation and the impact of mass violence on the self and culture. At the collection’s heart is “No Sign,” another in Balakian’s series of long-form poems, following “A-Train/Ziggurat/Elegy” and “Ozone Journal,” which appeared in his previous two collections. In this dialogical multi-sectioned poem, an estranged couple encounters each other, after years, on the cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades. The dialogue that ensues reveals the evolution of a kaleidoscopic memory spanning decades, reflecting on the geological history of Earth and the climate crisis, the film Hiroshima Mon Amour, the Vietnam War, a visionary encounter with the George Washington Bridge, and the enduring power of love..
 
Whether meditating on the sensuality of fruits and vegetables, the COVID-19 pandemic, the trauma and memory of the Armenian genocide, James Baldwin in France, or Arshile Gorky in New York City, Balakian’s layered, elliptical language, wired phrases, and shifting tempos engage both life’s harshness and beauty and define his inventive and distinctive style.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Release date: Mar 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9780226784106

Peter Balakian

Peter Balakian is the author of Black Dog of Fate, winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for Memoir and a New York Times Notable Book, and June-tree: New and Selected Poems 1974–2000. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. He holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University and teaches at Colgate University, where he is a Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities.

Book preview

Cover Page for No Sign

No Sign

No Sign

Peter Balakian

The University of Chicago Press

Chicago and London

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

© 2022 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.

Published 2022

Printed in the United States of America

31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22     1 2 3 4 5

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-78407-6 (cloth)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-78410-6 (e-book)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226784106.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Balakian, Peter, 1951- author.

Title: No sign / Peter Balakian.

Other titles: Phoenix poets.

Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2022. | Series: Phoenix poets

Identifiers: LCCN 2021032855 | ISBN 9780226784076 (cloth) | ISBN 9780226784106 (ebook)

Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry.

Classification: LCC PS3552.A443 N6 2022 | DDC 811/.54—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021032855

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

to my sisters and brother,

PAM, JIM, and JAN

Contents

Acknowledgments

ONE

History, Bitterness

Tung Lai Shun

Ode to the Douduk

Waiting for a Number

Summer Ode

Yellow Lilies

Outside Arshile Gorky’s Studio

Revenant Love

Watching the Tulips Die

Purple Irises

Shadow Grid

Grasses of Unknowing

How Much I Love You

TWO

Eggplant

Quince

Bulgur

Pomegranate

Matza

Fig

Walnut

Apricot

Grape Leaves

Tomatoes

Okra

Zucchini

THREE

No Sign

FOUR

Stalled in Traffic

Head of Anahit/British Museum

Coming to Istanbul

Leaving the Big City

Walking the Ruined City

Notes

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the editors of the following publications where these poems first appeared:

AGNI: "Walking the Ruined City"

Atlantic: "Pomegranate"

Consequence: "Yellow Lilies, Outside Arshile Gorky’s Studio"

Green Mountains Review: "History, Bitterness"

Harvard Review: "Tung Lai Shun"

Literary Imagination: "Revenant Love, Matza, Fig"

New Letters: "Okra"

New Yorker: "Eggplant, Zucchini"

Paris Review: "Shadow Grid"

Ploughshares: "Stalled in Traffic"

Plume: "Leaving the Big City"

Poem-a-Day: "Ode to the Douduk, Waiting for a Number"

Poetry: "Head of Anahit/British Museum"

Prairie Schooner: "Summer Ode, Walnut, Grape Leaves"

Progressive: "Tomatoes"

Tikkun: "Coming to Istanbul"

Yale Review: "How Much I Love You, Bulgur"

The poem "No Sign" in a slightly earlier version was published in a limited edition in 2020 by Arrowsmith Press (Cambridge, MA).

With thanks for conversations: Askold, Bruce, Karen, Mary, Rachel, Robert Jay, and Sven.

One

History, Bitterness

A phone booth August/ Yaddo/ Saratoga Springs—air

of the Tiffany parlor—sour scent of empty wine bottles,

my friend handed me the sweating receiver: Go ahead—say hello.

What could I say to James Baldwin who