ark kuhl house poets edited byJorie Graham andMark Levine ark Poems by John Isles university of iowa press Iowa City University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 2003 by John Isles All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Design by Richard Hendel http://www.uiowa.edu/uiowapress No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. This is a work of poetry; any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental. The publication of this book was generously supported by the University of Iowa Foundation. Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Isles, John. Ark: poems / by John Isles. p. cm.—(Kuhl House poets) isbn0-87745-860-x(pbk.) I. Title. II. Series. ps3609.s58a88 2003 811(cid:1).6—dc21 2003040251 03 04 05 06 07 p 5 4 3 2 1 To the memory of my mother and father contents part i To a Pretending Leaf 3 Static Report 4 Carrion Days 5 Sirens 6 Out of the Past 7 Elegy for the Present Moment 9 Small Traveling Islands 10 General Trees 12 part ii Covenant 15 West of Here, North of True 17 The Evangelist of Fish 19 City upon a Hill 20 Saint in the Wilderness 21 New World Narratives 22 The Old Hunting Grounds 24 The Night-Flier’s Song 25 Western Landscape with Storm 27 Natural History 28 Every City 29 part iii How the Dead Kiss 33 part iv The Blouse Keeps Opening 45 The Wounded Angel 46 Our Daughter 47 Impossible Garden 48 As One with Foot in Mouth 49 Like Freedom 50 Outlaws, According to the Movies 51 In the Erogenous Zone of the Body Politic 53 Notes 55 acknowledgments I am grateful to the editors of the following publications in which some of these poems first appeared: American Literary Review, Black Warrior Review, Boomerang!, Colorado Review, CutBank, Denver Quarterly, Elixir, Fine Madness, First Intensity, Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, Phoebe, Pleiades, Poet Lore, Quarter after Eight, Seattle Review, Sonora Review, Xantippe, andZYZZYVA. This book would not have been possible without the comments and encouragement of many people. I am indebted to my teachers at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Jorie Graham and Mark Levine for choosing the manu- script, Brenda Hillman, Mary Wang, Sam Witt, D. A. Powell, and Lary Kleeman. Finally, I am forever grateful to my greatest poetic ally, my wife, Kristen Hanlon.