{"product_id":"9780374532741","title":"Crossing State Lines : An American Renga","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eCrossing State Lines\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA collaborative poem about America, from fifty-four of our best poets\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eCrossing State Lines\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003ci\u003eAn American Renga\u003c\/i\u003e is a poetic relay race across the continent: fifty-four poets responding to ideas of America—and to each other. This is a collaborative journey of impressions—from the election and inauguration of President Obama, through foreclosures, job losses, chords of country music, and bombs in Baghdad, to a poet-soldier's rifle-sight in Afghanistan. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe renga itself, in the ancient tradition of Japanese linked verse, provides the form of this historic conversation among the poets, as they meditate, within ten lines, on a moment in America. \u003ci\u003eCrossing State Lines \u003c\/i\u003ebegins with Robert Pinsky's recounting of a line of poetry by Lincoln as fall deepens and \"maples \/ kindle in the East,\" and ends some five hundred lines later, with Robert Hass's \"greeny April\" on the Pacific coast. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll proceeds from sales go to America: Now and Here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCrossing State Lines: An American Renga\u003c\/i\u003e . . . [is] a fascinating book . . . As it turns out, the renga is a surprisingly appropriate genre for America--its lower 48 states are themselves a kind of chain poem, connecting and referencing each other in literal and metaphorical ways. \u003ci\u003eCrossing State Lines\u003c\/i\u003e goes after these links on formal and thematic levels . . . The strength of the book is the diversity of voices. Between the same covers you find a poet like Rae Armantrout snuggling up to Nicole Cooley and Billy Collins poetically spooning Rita Dove. Anne Waldman rolls over to find Vijay Seshadri alongside Marilyn Hacker. There is a fantastic foursome of David St. John, Marie Howe, C. K. Williams, and Heather McHugh--sort of a paginated Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice. Since most of the poets incorporate a line or a trope from the previous poem into their own, this lyrical interlacing gets accentuated in pleasing (and surprising) ways . . .  If \u003ci\u003eCrossing State Lines\u003c\/i\u003e has a theme, it's probably just that--motion. Movement. Crossing. Changing. Even the final poem by Robert Hass, which I will not give away, turns on the whole notion of turning. Where are we going? What are we pivoting toward? What, exactly, are we turning in to? This collection does a fantastic job of exploring these questions on poetic, cultural, and national levels.” —\u003ci\u003eDean Rader, The Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374532741\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40626118688974,"sku":"9780374532741","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_811f62f3-646d-46b1-9f25-5259a0a1cd38.jpg?v=1638667860","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374532741","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}