Virgil and the Mountain Cat
Virgil and the Mountain Cat: Poems
David Lau
Series: New California Poetry
Copyright Date: 2009
Edition: 1
Published by: University of California Press
Pages: 88
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pnjs0
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Book Info
Virgil and the Mountain Cat
Book Description:

At once uncompromising and highly inventive, David Lau's poems are imbued with a musicality that lightens the dark undertones of spoliation and entropy. Many of the poems embody a nexus of interaction with historical events, films, modernist poetic texts, and works of art—but from this allusion and evocation, a multifarious voice emerges. In these pages, the electric linguistic experiment meets a new urban, postnatural poetics, one in which poetry is not just a play of signs and seemings but also a prismatic investigation of our contemporary order: "Hurry up before our factory leaves. / The first column of the Freedom Tower / traduces its ensorcellment in the facade." Here is a poetry both deeply lyrical and resistant, a poetry relentless in its invention and its stance against the apathy of convention and consumption.

eISBN: 978-0-520-94327-8
Subjects: Language & Literature
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Table of Contents
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (pp. ix-xi)
  4. I
    • Prosopopoeia
      Prosopopoeia (pp. 3-3)
    • Day to Start on the Floorboards, Rain to the South, Any View a Machine
      Day to Start on the Floorboards, Rain to the South, Any View a Machine (pp. 4-5)
    • New Organic Shifts
      New Organic Shifts (pp. 6-6)
    • Suburbatross
      Suburbatross (pp. 7-7)
    • Immortality
      Immortality (pp. 8-9)
    • Going Out
      Going Out (pp. 10-10)
    • Man with Archiving Machine
      Man with Archiving Machine (pp. 11-11)
    • Iovis Omnia Plena
      Iovis Omnia Plena (pp. 12-12)
    • Happiness Is for the Terrestre
      Happiness Is for the Terrestre (pp. 13-13)
    • Many Jasons
      Many Jasons (pp. 14-14)
    • Absolute, The
      Absolute, The (pp. 15-15)
    • Tell Pearl
      Tell Pearl (pp. 16-16)
    • The Tupperware Concerto
      The Tupperware Concerto (pp. 17-17)
    • Black Line Drawing
      Black Line Drawing (pp. 18-18)
  5. II
    • Oil Trees
      Oil Trees (pp. 21-21)
    • Awkwardnesses
      Awkwardnesses (pp. 22-22)
    • They Camped for This Day in the Villages Overlooking the Plain of the River
      They Camped for This Day in the Villages Overlooking the Plain of the River (pp. 23-23)
    • Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film
      Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film (pp. 24-24)
    • The Spy’s Council of Breezes
      The Spy’s Council of Breezes (pp. 25-25)
    • Civil War
      Civil War (pp. 26-27)
    • Yucca Flats
      Yucca Flats (pp. 28-29)
    • Stag
      Stag (pp. 30-30)
    • Metacinematic Skirt Border of a Traumatophile
      Metacinematic Skirt Border of a Traumatophile (pp. 31-31)
    • Parade
      Parade (pp. 32-32)
    • Boom Kiss Boom Boom Kiss
      Boom Kiss Boom Boom Kiss (pp. 33-33)
    • Restlessness on the Hummock
      Restlessness on the Hummock (pp. 34-34)
    • To an Ectopic Shepherd
      To an Ectopic Shepherd (pp. 35-35)
    • Apotheosis of Groundlessness
      Apotheosis of Groundlessness (pp. 36-36)
  6. III
    • Tears Open the Sky behind Every Gesture
      Tears Open the Sky behind Every Gesture (pp. 39-39)
    • Now Now There There You Know Her Skirt Settles on a Cow
      Now Now There There You Know Her Skirt Settles on a Cow (pp. 40-40)
    • Vertigo Fastener
      Vertigo Fastener (pp. 41-41)
    • Exclusion Act
      Exclusion Act (pp. 42-42)
    • Scene
      Scene (pp. 43-43)
    • Heroes of Our America
      Heroes of Our America (pp. 44-45)
    • Domesticity Effect
      Domesticity Effect (pp. 46-46)
    • July Montaigne
      July Montaigne (pp. 47-47)
    • Toward Disunion’s Opal
      Toward Disunion’s Opal (pp. 48-48)
    • Land Bridge
      Land Bridge (pp. 49-49)
    • Extra Strength Resistant Resistance
      Extra Strength Resistant Resistance (pp. 50-50)
    • Songs about the Avant-Garde
      Songs about the Avant-Garde (pp. 51-53)
    • Protest in Philippines
      Protest in Philippines (pp. 54-54)
    • Where I Shall Need No Glass
      Where I Shall Need No Glass (pp. 55-55)
    • Moved Only by Mechanical Device
      Moved Only by Mechanical Device (pp. 56-56)
    • The Birth of Reality Out of Appearance
      The Birth of Reality Out of Appearance (pp. 57-58)
    • Seiche
      Seiche (pp. 59-59)
    • Yesterday Lectures
      Yesterday Lectures (pp. 60-60)
    • Virgil and the Mountain Cat
      Virgil and the Mountain Cat (pp. 61-62)
    • Jellyfish
      Jellyfish (pp. 63-64)
  7. NOTES
    NOTES (pp. 65-66)
  8. Back Matter
    Back Matter (pp. 67-67)
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