Table of Contents

IThe Falling HourMight We Find SuccorSource ElegyCeci N'est Pas Un AngeWhen I Think Of A Heaven For YouOn The Sixth Day The Word Is Taken From MeThis Was The Species I Kept TameAn Inner Life For DummiesThe Death of SadeThe Architecture of SleepAbout The AuthorAubadeWhy I Am Not A PaganInternationaleThe Analyst's Love Is His Silence

IISelf-Portrait As Fuseli's ImpThe Screen Test of 'Tipi' HedrenScheherezadeArt AppreciationThe Sound Of MusicThe Sister Of LazarusUntitledLittle ElegyThe Future Of An IllusionThe Cabinet Of Dr. CaligariHere My Account Breaks OffDanse BizarreCivilizaton & Its DiscontentsMy Work Among The FaithfulRoman Sans ClefMadame Paradigm Has Come To StayAgainst Autobiography

IIISelf-Portrait With Fuseli's ImpIn Vacant Or In Pensive MoodCentoEscape From The Planet Of The ApesOn The Occasion Of My Marriage To Rod SerlingThe Masque Of Persephone As Performed By Madame De SadeBovaristWe Feel No Compulsion To Shock, Embitter, Or Confound Our ReadersRumi In HellRecitativeWhen We Were LibertinesKaspar Hauser In HeavenWhere Do You Get Your IdeasMarch 23

Promotional Information

I suppose Lisa Beskin is a sort of present-day American Gothic skeptic, more than distantly related to Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her wit is bright and dark. The people in her poems may suffer, but an unseen force is protecting them; just when the poems turn mordant, something inexplicably humane and tender appears. There is odd comfort in these poems, odd beauty. -- Gillian Conoley Lisa Beskin possesses the courage of distinctions, e.g. the fineness of the air from the shimmer of God's robe. De Sade, Dr. Caligari, Lazarus's sister, and Rod Serling--all these, and more, are met here. If the devil is in the details, then these poems are rich in wondrous deviltry. -- Nance Van Winckel One's thresholds can be surprising subjects in and of themselves. Can I take this almost arch, almost otherworldly wit and its attendant acumen--well, yes, on account of that there's sprit and heart almost naked inside them. Is this poetry acatalectic and heartbreakingly beautiful, a metaphorical resolution? I think so. The poems in this book have caused me to write these sentences. And better than that, I love these poems for their adventurous, elegant dedication to poetry's insistences. -- Dara Wier

About the Author

Lisa Beskin was educated at Oberlin College and at the University of Massachusetts, where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree. Her work has received numerous awards and has appeared in The Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Field, and others. A long-time New England resident, she has taught creative writing and English at Yale, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst College. My Work Among the Faithful is her first collection of poems.

Reviews

"I suppose Lisa Beskin is a sort of present-day American Gothic skeptic, more than distantly related to Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her wit is bright and dark. The people in her poems may suffer, but an unseen force is protecting them; just when the poems turn mordant, something inexplicably humane and tender appears. There is odd comfort in these poems, odd beauty."--Gillian Conoley

"Lisa Beskin possesses the courage of distinctions, e.g. the fineness of the air from the shimmer of God's robe. De Sade, Dr. Caligari, Lazarus's sister, and Rod Serling--all these, and more, are met here. If the devil is in the details, then these poems are rich in wondrous deviltry."--Nance Van Winckel

"One's thresholds can be surprising subjects in and of themselves. Can I take this almost arch, almost otherworldly wit and its attendant acumen--well, yes, on account of that there's sprit and heart almost naked inside them. Is this poetry acatalectic and heartbreakingly beautiful, a metaphorical resolution? I think so. The poems in this book have caused me to write these sentences. And better than that, I love these poems for their adventurous, elegant dedication to poetry's insistences."--Dara Wier