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Genius Loci

Part of Penguin Poets

Author Alison Hawthorne Deming
Ebook
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
On sale May 31, 2005 | 112 Pages | 978-1-101-00729-7
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From a poet and essayist whose writing about nature has won her comparisons with Gary Snyder and Terry Tempest Williams comes a new collection that offers further evidence of her ability to trace the intersections of the human and nonhuman worlds. The title poem is a lyrical excavation of the city of Prague, where layers of history, culture and nature have accumulated to form “a genius loci”—a guardian spirit.
Return to a place where nothing in particular can be seen
to explain why you return, nothing you can name,
though you can touch the memory of the landscape—

linden trees in a hedgerow, cut wheatfield, ruins of the
longhouse,
rolling meadow of sunflowers blooming, the musk of
their oil, 
contained heat.
Copyright © 2005 by Alison Deming. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Alison Hawthorne Deming is the author of four collections of poetry, including Science and Other Poems (winner of the Walt Whitman Award) and Rope. Her works of nonfiction include The Edges of the Civilized World (a finalist for the PEN Center USA/West Award) and Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit. The recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship Award, she is a professor of creative writing at the University of Arizona and lives in Tucson. View titles by Alison Hawthorne Deming

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From a poet and essayist whose writing about nature has won her comparisons with Gary Snyder and Terry Tempest Williams comes a new collection that offers further evidence of her ability to trace the intersections of the human and nonhuman worlds. The title poem is a lyrical excavation of the city of Prague, where layers of history, culture and nature have accumulated to form “a genius loci”—a guardian spirit.

Excerpt

Return to a place where nothing in particular can be seen
to explain why you return, nothing you can name,
though you can touch the memory of the landscape—

linden trees in a hedgerow, cut wheatfield, ruins of the
longhouse,
rolling meadow of sunflowers blooming, the musk of
their oil, 
contained heat.
Copyright © 2005 by Alison Deming. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

Alison Hawthorne Deming is the author of four collections of poetry, including Science and Other Poems (winner of the Walt Whitman Award) and Rope. Her works of nonfiction include The Edges of the Civilized World (a finalist for the PEN Center USA/West Award) and Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit. The recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship Award, she is a professor of creative writing at the University of Arizona and lives in Tucson. View titles by Alison Hawthorne Deming

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