{"product_id":"the-house-of-blue-light-paperback","title":"The House of Blue Light - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eDavid Kirby\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe House of Blue Light\u003c\/i\u003e is the second collection of autobiographical \"memory poems\" by Catholic-school-boy-gone-bad-turned-poet-made-good David Kirby, a stand-up comic of verse if ever there was one: \"in Stardust Memories . . . these wise space aliens who visit Earth . . . tell  Woody Allen] that if he really wants to serve humanity, \/ he should tell funnier jokes--wait, that's my duty, \/ I think, that's my public duty  Because sooner or later, \/ we all turn upside down.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWearing both heart and wit on his sleeve, Kirby confides in longish narrative poems events he actually or vicariously experienced--as a child, a teen, a young man, and now--as well as some future scenes he imagines. Literary theorists Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes; Little Richard and Muhammad Ali; Herman Melville, James Dickey, and Henry James; friends, family, personal heroes, and acquaintances, including the Ah Oui Girl of Paris and Tige Watley's Whoah of Baton Rouge, are all equally alive in Kirby's poems. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs Walt Whitman did, Kirby offers a first-person speaker as a proxy for everyone else (\"Who, including ourselves, \/ knows what we know and when we know it?\"), achieving a unity and accessible authenticity rare in poetry. A fun house, \"a mishmash for sure,\" \u003ci\u003eThe House of Blue Light\u003c\/i\u003e is a delightfully entertaining, irreverent, erudite collection of commentary piling upon commentary that brings us \"that one element so largely absent \/ from our quotidian existence, i.e., surprise.\"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eDavid Kirby, the W. Guy McKenzie Professor of English at Florida State University, is the author of numerous books, including four previous poetry collections, most recently \u003ci\u003eMy Twentieth Century\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBig-Leg Music.\u003c\/i\u003e He has contributed poems and essays to such journals as \u003ci\u003eKenyon Review, Southern Review, Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Gettysburg Review\u003c\/i\u003e and is included in \u003ci\u003eBest American Poetry 2000, \u003c\/i\u003e edited by Rita Dove. He is married to the poet Barbara Hamby and lives in Tallahassee\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 88\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.28 x 9.01 x 6.02 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 01, 2000\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52726432497971,"sku":"9780807126172","price":27.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/UGNOSXpkRDF0UnBnakVWRmY1R0xYdz09.webp?v=1763737191","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/the-house-of-blue-light-paperback","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}