Genius loci /
Alison Hawthorne Deming.
- New York : Penguin Books, 2005.
- 95 p. ; 23 cm.
- Penguin poets .
The naturalists -- The yaak -- The blackwater -- Near Zion -- The temple harlot -- Wild woman of the woods -- Matins for Andre Dubus -- God -- For the thief -- Arboretum -- Under the influence of ironwoods -- The enigma we answer by living -- Short treatise on birds -- The charting -- Consciousness achieving the form of a crane -- Union Square -- Urban law -- Wild fruit -- New shoes, 1939 -- The phenomenology of shopping -- Zoology -- The old man -- The changing place -- Voice -- Driving through nature -- The rock fig -- Leaving the island -- The garden in winter -- Hovenweep -- Learning again to love -- Making love to you when you're far away -- What happens next -- Penelope Zen -- La Paz.
"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 intersection of the human and nonhuman worlds. The central idea of Genius Loci, the third book of poetry by Alison Hawthorne Deming, is the meaning of place, and the need to make some balance between the beauty and the horror of history. 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."--Back Cover.