Carcanet Press - We Look Like This

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We look like this after things fall apart;

The painting is the autopsy report

From an inquest where war took the part

Of coroner…

from ‘Modern Painters’

We Look Like This anatomizes how history, violence, power, lust and mortality work on us. Burt's formal, muscular language evokes a world of war, want, cruelty and hope, as well as childhood among ‘tough Jews’ in Philadelphia, dominated by his father Joe, son of Ukrainian immigrants, butcher, boxer and, late in life, coastal fisherman. Joe's last world, Barnegat inlet and the sea off the New Jersey coast, are counterpoint to and salvation from hard streets for father and son.

Cover painting Frank Auerbach, Head of Gerda Boehm, 1978–9 (detail). Oil on board, 56.5 x 71.1 cm (22 1/4 x 28 in). Private collection. Copyright © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Marlborough Fine Art. Photograph courtesy of Yvonne Burt.

Who He Was 1–5
Death Mask
Slowly Sounds the Bell

Certain Windows

III

Circumcision
Indices
Inquisition
Rosebud
Ishmael

Accounting
Death Rattle
Blind Date
Texaco Saturday Afternoon Opera
Cabaletta
All the Dark Years
For John Crook
Homage for a Waterman
Facsimile Folio
John Winthrop’s Ghost

Pastiche
Poetry Reading
After Lunch
Little Black Dress
Kept
Pas de Deux
Winter Mornings
Yester-year
Revenant
Sie Kommt
The Faithful
End of the Affair

Decorating the Nursery
Wine Circle
Dodge-Ball
Blue Rinse Matrons
Momentum
Three Sonnets on the Coup de Grâce
Uphill to the Right
Manqué

VII

Compounds
Modern Painters
A Brewing Tale
The Lesson
Rigoletto
Summa
Motes
Un Coup de Dés
Identity
Beside a Cove
The Institute
Trade

Notes

Dan Burt was born in South Philadelphia in 1942. He attended state schools and a local Catholic college before reading English at St John’s College, Cambridge. After graduating from Yale Law School he practised law in the United States, Saudi Arabia and Britain before moving to London in 1994 and becoming ... read more

This is a major debut. Burt's tough, terse language explores the human truth reached when all protective skin is stripped away.
Elaine Feinstein, The Times, 26th May 2012. 'Dan Burt investigates the gaps between people, their cultures, their places of living. Between new and old worlds, between lives of deprivation and comfort, between inner and outer selves, there is something gritty and disturbing working away. From cynicism and anger to deeply felt and even traumatic elegy, these are the revelations and considerations of a life and the lives that contribute to and make one's own. In poems and prose that reach deep down into the reservoir of human loss, distress and need, comes hope. He is a writer of intensity and passion who is able to be wry when needs be. There are the costs, but there is also renewal.'
John Kinsella Praise for Dan Burt 'His language is terse to the point of brutality; the verbs ferocious... his core conviction, formed by the history of the twentieth century and a lifetime in a non-literary world, is of "the curtain falling on the Enlightenment".' Elaine Feinstein, PN Review 'the verse flexes muscle after muscle. Burt is excellent on place and occasion... The writing... can hover and dance. It has genuine grace. Certain Windows is a very good book...'
George Szirtes, Poetry Book Society 'Full of hard-won wisdom and beautiful lines, it's testament to the transforming power of poetry.'
Suzy Feay, the Independent 'Dan Burt investigates the gaps between people, their cultures, their places of living. Between new and old worlds, between lives of deprivation and comfort, between inner and outer selves, there is something gritty and disturbing working away. From cynicism and anger to deeply felt and even traumatic elegy, these are the revelations and considerations of a life and the lives that contribute to and make one's own. In poems and prose that reach deep down into the reservoir of human loss, distress and need, comes hope. He is a writer of intensity and passion who is able to be wry when needs be. There are the costs, but there is also renewal.'
John Kinsella

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We Look Like This Dan Burt RRP: GBP 9.95 Discount: 10% You Save: GBP 0.99 Price: GBP 8.96 Available Paperback ISBN: 978 1 847771 32 2 Categories: 21st Century, American, British Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Published: April 2012 216 x 135 x 13 mm Publisher: Carcanet Press Also available in: Hardback, eBook (Kindle), eBook (EPUB) Description Excerpt Author Contents Reviews We look like this after things fall apart; The painting is the autopsy report From an inquest where war took the part Of coroner… from ‘Modern Painters’ We Look Like This anatomizes how history, violence, power, lust and mortality work on us. Burt's formal, muscular language evokes a world of war, want, cruelty and hope, as well as childhood among ‘tough Jews’ in Philadelphia, dominated by his father Joe, son of Ukrainian immigrants, butcher, boxer and, late in life, coastal fisherman. Joe's last world, Barnegat inlet and the sea off the New Jersey coast, are counterpoint to and salvation from hard streets for father and son. Cover painting Frank Auerbach, Head of Gerda Boehm, 1978–9 (detail). Oil on board, 56.5 x 71.1 cm (22 1/4 x 28 in). Private collection. Copyright © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Marlborough Fine Art. Photograph courtesy of Yvonne Burt. I Who He Was 1–5 Death Mask Slowly Sounds the Bell II Certain Windows III Circumcision Indices Inquisition Rosebud Ishmael IV Accounting Death Rattle Blind Date Texaco Saturday Afternoon Opera Cabaletta All the Dark Years For John Crook Homage for a Waterman Facsimile Folio John Winthrop’s Ghost V Pastiche Poetry Reading After Lunch Little Black Dress Kept Pas de Deux Winter Mornings Yester-year Revenant Sie Kommt The Faithful End of the Affair VI Decorating the Nursery Wine Circle Dodge-Ball Blue Rinse Matrons Momentum Three Sonnets on the Coup de Grâce Uphill to the Right Manqué VII Compounds Modern Painters A Brewing Tale The Lesson Rigoletto Summa Motes Un Coup de Dés Identity Beside a Cove The Institute Trade Notes Dan Burt was born in South Philadelphia in 1942. He attended state schools and a local Catholic college before reading English at St John’s College, Cambridge. After graduating from Yale Law School he practised law in the United States, Saudi Arabia and Britain before moving to London in 1994 and becoming ... read more This is a major debut. Burt's tough, terse language explores the human truth reached when all protective skin is stripped away. Elaine Feinstein, The Times, 26th May 2012. 'Dan Burt investigates the gaps between people, their cultures, their places of living. Between new and old worlds, between lives of deprivation and comfort, between inner and outer selves, there is something gritty and disturbing working away. From cynicism and anger to deeply felt and even traumatic elegy, these are the revelations and considerations of a life and the lives that contribute to and make one's own. In poems and prose that reach deep down into the reservoir of human loss, distress and need, comes hope. He is a writer of intensity and passion who is able to be wry when needs be. There are the costs, but there is also renewal.' John Kinsella Praise for Dan Burt 'His language is terse to the point of brutality; the verbs ferocious... his core conviction, formed by the history of the twentieth century and a lifetime in a non-literary world, is of "the curtain falling on the Enlightenment".' Elaine Feinstein, PN Review 'the verse flexes muscle after muscle. Burt is excellent on place and occasion... The writing... can hover and dance. It has genuine grace. Certain Windows is a very good book...' George Szirtes, Poetry Book Society 'Full of hard-won wisdom and beautiful lines, it's testament to the transforming power of poetry.' Suzy Feay, the Independent 'Dan Burt investigates the gaps between people, their cultures, their places of living. Between new and old worlds, between lives of deprivation and comfort, between inner and outer selves, there is something gritty and disturbing working away. From cynicism and anger to deeply felt and even traumatic elegy, these are the revelations and considerations of a life and the lives that contribute to and make one's own. In poems and prose that reach deep down into the reservoir of human loss, distress and need, comes hope. He is a writer of intensity and passion who is able to be wry when needs be. There are the costs, but there is also renewal.' John Kinsella You might also be interested in: Collected Poems and Translations Elaine Feinstein Collected Poems 1956-1987 John Ashbery, Edited by Mark Ford	Share this... 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