Red Sugar
Red Sugar
JAN BEATTY
Series: Pitt Poetry Series
Copyright Date: 2008
Published by: University of Pittsburgh Press
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w
Pages: 88
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hjp2w
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Book Info
Red Sugar
Book Description:

"Red Sugar is tantalizing and forbidden, but it is no peepshow. The poems are raw, brash, and full of pluck, yet there is tenderness and honest emotion at the core. Jan Beatty reminds us that there is 'nothing / between us and death but one inch.' She takes us to the edge of being and shows us our own quick mortal souls. Yes, there's rock music and prison sex-but do not think for a moment that this book is merely licentious. Beatty casts a broad canopy over human desire, and within the scope of experience, she finds, too, that we are innocent and sublime beings. A rich, rare treat, this Red Sugar." -D. A. Powell

"Tthe boldly sexual first person narratives in Red Sugar are absolutely riveting, artfully fleshed-out poems which generate fear for the character's safety." -ForeWord Magazine

"This electric, nerve-jangling collection revels in and sometimes rails against the glorious mess of inhabiting a body. The poems, in this, her third collection, are often raw, and full of sex, drugs and rock n' roll, but they're also shockingly soft and tender." --Pittsburgh Magazine

eISBN: 978-0-8229-9069-7
Subjects: Language & Literature
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Table of Contents
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. [i]-[iv])
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.1
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. [v]-[vi])
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.2
  3. 1 to the cracked code and the inside job
    • I Saw One of Blake’s Angels
      I Saw One of Blake’s Angels (pp. 3-5)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.3
    • Lip
      Lip (pp. 6-6)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.4
  4. 2 Make it Beautiful
    • Skinning It
      Skinning It (pp. 9-9)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.5
    • I’ll Write the Girl
      I’ll Write the Girl (pp. 10-10)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.6
    • Prison Sex
      Prison Sex (pp. 11-11)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.7

      10 am Tuesday you show up at my apt my republican roommates & old italian neighbors watching. 11 years in jail & I’m your first stop in your too-small suit & worn shoes you’re an East Liberty pimp right to the mattress on the floor in my no-drapes room & it’s you on top of me/suit on/I’m on my stomach in teeshirt-for-pajamas & we’re rolling/slapping/scratching/your hands on my wrists loud your o deep o like the fucking home-run fuck like your fucking-a-teenager-first-time fuck & no time forhappy to be out?shirt up/zipper down & I’m the guys you fucked in prison/the tearing down they did to...

    • To the Well-Meaning
      To the Well-Meaning (pp. 12-13)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.8
    • Shooter
      Shooter (pp. 14-14)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.9

      I shoot the old man who followed my 11-yr-old body on Smithfield St/because I smiled at him/because it was Xmas/I shoot the man who jacked-off/on the bricks of our house/put a ladder to my window when I was 12/I shoot the professor who said my work was illogical, then used me for publicity when I won an award/the businessman who wanted to talk about my teenage breasts/I’m loading & re-loading/the guy who walked up to me when I was a cashier & asked about my “hole”/I hope you still like me when I say the gynecologist stuck his tongue down my throat...

    • Flurry
      Flurry (pp. 15-15)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.10
    • Red Sugar
      Red Sugar (pp. 16-18)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.11
  5. 3 After Being Fired from the All-Night Greek Diner
    • The Phenomenology of Sex
      The Phenomenology of Sex (pp. 21-21)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.12
    • American Night
      American Night (pp. 22-22)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.13
    • In Helena
      In Helena (pp. 23-24)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.14
    • When Foucault Entered the Body
      When Foucault Entered the Body (pp. 25-26)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.15
    • The Day I Stripped
      The Day I Stripped (pp. 27-27)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.16
    • Skeet Shooting Out West
      Skeet Shooting Out West (pp. 28-28)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.17
    • Cave Music—Comet, Montana
      Cave Music—Comet, Montana (pp. 29-32)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.18
  6. 4 I woke in the night
    • Hitchhike
      Hitchhike (pp. 35-37)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.19
    • Stray
      Stray (pp. 38-38)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.20
    • The Long White
      The Long White (pp. 39-40)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.21
    • The Arrangements
      The Arrangements (pp. 41-42)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.22
    • Luck Was the Father
      Luck Was the Father (pp. 43-43)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.23
    • Long White Sky
      Long White Sky (pp. 44-45)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.24
    • Speculator Mine Disaster Butte, Montana, 1917
      Speculator Mine Disaster Butte, Montana, 1917 (pp. 46-47)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.25
    • Procession
      Procession (pp. 48-48)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.26
  7. 5 Red Song
    • Serum
      Serum (pp. 51-55)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.27
    • A Necessary Waist: Plath Grows Thinner Reading Stein
      A Necessary Waist: Plath Grows Thinner Reading Stein (pp. 56-56)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.28
  8. 6 Love Poem w/Strat #2
    • A Vegas Thing
      A Vegas Thing (pp. 59-59)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.29
    • After
      After (pp. 60-60)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.30
    • Dreaming Door
      Dreaming Door (pp. 61-61)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.31
    • The Punch
      The Punch (pp. 62-63)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.32
    • Love Poem w/Strat
      Love Poem w/Strat (pp. 64-64)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.33
  9. 7 after the narrowing, the map
    • Daughter of Blue Lake
      Daughter of Blue Lake (pp. 67-68)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.34
    • Shower w/notebook
      Shower w/notebook (pp. 69-71)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.35
    • Sitting Nude
      Sitting Nude (pp. 72-74)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.36
  10. NOTES
    NOTES (pp. 75-76)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.37
  11. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (pp. 77-80)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjp2w.38