The Trembling Answers
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About this ebook
WINNER OF THE 2018 LENORE MARSHALL POETRY PRIZE
An extension of and a departure from previous explorations of family and art, these poems delve boldly into tangled realities of fatherhood, marriage, and poetry. Dealing with the day-to-day of family life—including the alert anxiety and remarkable beauty of caring for a child with cerebral palsy—these personal narratives illuminate the relationship that exists between poetry and a life fiercely lived.Craig Morgan Teicher
Craig Morgan Teicher is the author of four books of poems: Welcome to Sonnetville, New Jersey (BOA, 2021); The Trembling Answers (BOA, 2017), which won the 2015 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets; To Keep Love Blurry (BOA, 2012); and Brenda Is in the Room and Other Poems (CLP, 2007), winner of the 2007 Colorado Prize for Poetry. He also wrote Cradle Book: Stories and Fables (BOA, 2010) and the chapbook Ambivalence and Other Conundrums (Omnidawn, 2014). His first collection of essays, We Begin in Gladness, was published by Graywolf in November, 2018. Teicher edited Once and For All: The Best of Delmore Schwartz (New Directions, 2016) and serves as a poetry editor for The Literary Review. He writes about books for many publications, including The New York Times Book Review, The LA Times, and NPR. He worked for many years at Publishers Weekly and is now Digital Director of The Paris Review. He is a 2021 recipient of a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and children.
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The Trembling Answers - Craig Morgan Teicher
THE TREMBLING ANSWERS
BOA wishes to acknowledge the generosity of the following
40 for 40 Major Gift Donors
Lannan Foundation
Gouvernet Arts Fund
Angela Bonazinga & Catherine Lewis
Boo Poulin
[image: cover]Copyright © 2017 by Craig Morgan Teicher
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition
17 18 19 20 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For information about permission to reuse any material from this book, please contact The Permissions Company at www.permissionscompany.com or e-mail permdude@gmail.com.
Publications by BOA Editions, Ltd.—a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code—are made possible with funds from a variety of sources, including public funds from the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the County of Monroe, NY. Private funding sources include the Lannan Foundation for support of the Lannan Translations Selection Series; the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; the Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust; the Rochester AreaCommunity Foundation; the Steeple-Jack Fund; the Ames-Amzalak Memorial Trust in memory of Henry Ames, Semon Amzalak, and Dan Amzalak; and contributions from many individuals nationwide. See Colophon on page 88 for special individual acknowledgments.
Cover Design: Sandy Knight
Interior Design and Composition: Richard Foerster
Manufacturing: McNaughton & Gunn
BOA Logo: Mirko
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Teicher, Craig Morgan, 1979– author.
Title: The trembling answers : poems / by Craig Morgan Teicher.
Description: First edition. | Rochester, NY : BOA Editions Ltd., [2017] | Series: American poets continuum ; 160
Identifiers: LCCN 2016045572| ISBN 9781942683315 (paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781942683322 (ebook)
Subjects: | BISAC: POETRY / American / General. | FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Children with Special Needs. | FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Parenting / Fatherhood.
Classification: LCC PS3620.E4359 A6 2017 | DDC 811/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016045572
BOA Editions, Ltd.
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Rochester, NY 14607
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A. Poulin, Jr., Founder (1938–1996)
For Simone
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
ONE
Every Turning
Self-Portrait Beside Myself
Free
Night Nurse
Tracheotomy
Video Baby Monitor
Centering
The Hairdryer Cord Is All Tangled
Why Poetry: A Partial Autobiography
TWO
Why Poetry: A Partial Autobiography
Nest
Why Poetry: A Partial Autobiography
Apprehension
Where Am I?
In the Waiting Room
THREE
Book Review: The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford
FOUR
Self-Portrait as the Man I’ve Become
Letters to Brenda
Which Is the Best Part of the Day?
Low Note
All Elegies
Tomorrow and Tomorrow Again
Another Day
Edgemont
Gnostic
Another Poem on My Daughter’s Birthday
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Colophon
ONE
Every Turning
Every turning toward is