"Midway through the journey of his life, Dan Beachy-Quick found himself without a path, unsure how to live well. A Quiet Book follows him through the forest of his experience, on a classical search for meaning in the world and in his particular, quiet life. In essays, fragments, marginalia, images, travel writing, and poetry, Beachy-Quick traces relationships and the identities through which he sees the world. As father and husband. As teacher and student. As citizen and scholar. And as poet and reader, wondering at the potential and limits of literature, and guided by his studies in ancient Greek. A Quiet Book finds its inferno--and its paradise--in moments both historically vast and nakedly intimate. Our world's disappearing bees, James Eagan Holmes, Columbine, and the persistent, unforgivable crime of slavery--these are the circles of hell Beachy-Quick wanders, but cannot escape. And yet he encounters redemption in the art of Marcel Duchamp, the pressed flowers in Emily Dickinson's Bible, and long walks with his youngest daughter, Iris. -The litany in hell is weeping, weeping, - he writes, -but there are other litanies.- Curious, earnest, and masterful, A Quiet Book is an unforgettable exploration of the human soul."--Publisher's description.22:T468,“Grounded in history and nature, this smart, lyrical first collection explores the dangers of a world so complex that no single consciousness may grasp it—however much the attempt must be made. Following historical and imagined figures as they encounter specific moments or objects (such as Thomas Hariot in the American Wilderness of the late 16th century), the poems attempt to record the unraveling of the safe and singular into a multiplicity of unknowns. Impelled by metaphor and lilting repetition, North True South Bright seeks a sense of the world, and ultimately, a sense of the Infinite. “. . .quirky and original.” —Fence “Best Books by Emerging Writers fall 2003” “These poems appear before us with the urgency of prayer, the fever pitch of a spell being cast, and the desire to comprehend the mysteries of language. A unique and fascinating book of poems.” —Ploughshares “North True South Bright deliberately avoids easy idealisms by insisting that language can mediate, but never fully coalesce with, or pierce, the external world.” —FreeVerse23:T44d,"This volume collects important examples of Greek literary portraiture.". "The Characters of Theophrastus consists of thirty fictional sketches of men who are each dominated by a single fault, such as arrogance, boorishness, or superstition. Unassuming in style, his character sketches nonetheless bear resemblance to the vivid figures of the period's New Comedy. The Hellenistic poet Herodas wrote mimes, a popular Greek entertainment in which one actor or a small group portrayed a situation from everyday urban life, concentrating on depiction of character rather than on plot. Here too in a new text and translation are substantial portions of the mimes of Sophron, a Syracusan of the 5th century B.C. whose work Plato is said to have enjoyed, as well as a selection of anonymous mime fragments.". "The extant work of Sophron and the anonymous mime fragments are newly added to the Loeb Classical Library in this edition. And Jeffrey Rusten and Ian Cunningham have updated their editions of Theophrastus and Herodas (both first published in 1993) in light of the latest scholarship."--BOOK JACKET.24:T4ce,Du Fu (712–770) is one of the undisputed geniuses of Chinese poetry—still universally admired and read thirteen centuries after his death. Now David Young, author of Black Lab, and well known as a translator of Chinese poets, gives us a sparkling new translation of Du Fu’s verse, arranged to give us a tour of the life, each “chapter” of poems preceded by an introductory paragraph that situates us in place, time, and circumstance. What emerges is a portrait of a modest yet great artist, an ordinary man moving and adjusting as he must in troubled times, while crea

Books by Dan Beachy-Quick

Readers also follow