{"product_id":"burning-oracle-sandra-simonds-9780819502162","title":"Burning Oracle","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fierce, visionary book-length poem\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBurning Oracle\u003c\/i\u003e is a visionary, book-length poem told from the fractures of a world on fire where myth, memory, and contemporary life collide. Cassandra--seer, mother, survivor--wanders through forests of digital noise and historical trauma, her voice both ancient and urgently new. At the heart of the poem is a pilgrimage to the grave of poet Paul Celan where she traces personal loss within the wider context of inherited trauma--particularly the Holocaust--and seeks meaning in the act of remembering. As floods rise and fires rage, the personal and historical ignite a mythic voice. Through the commonplace of stained dresses, shattered screens, and supermarket aisles, Cassandra encounters figures like Goya, Reynard the fox, and Celan himself, weaving their stories into an intertextual, image-rich landscape. \u003ci\u003eBurning Oracle\u003c\/i\u003e is a feminist reckoning, a personal mythography, and a testament to the power of poetry to animate the archive of history, memory, and everyday life.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e[sample poem]\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e*\u003cbr\u003eFrom II\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNo source, my Seine, \u003cbr\u003ea German one instead, \u003cbr\u003eSixteen \u0026amp; reading Hölderlin's \u003cbr\u003eDer Rhein at the foot of a massive \u003cbr\u003estatue of Goethe and Schiller. \u003cbr\u003eStupid anorexic American girl.\u003cbr\u003eBut not really American. \u003cbr\u003eAnd not really French.\u003cbr\u003eAnd not really Turkish. \u003cbr\u003eAnd not really Syrian.\u003cbr\u003eAnd not really Spanish.\u003cbr\u003eAnd the tourists at the camp.\u003cbr\u003e Was I a tourist? \u003cbr\u003eSqueal of the cassette \u003cbr\u003e tape rewinding\u003cbr\u003ePink Floyd's The Wall. \u003cbr\u003eAh, when you speak German, \u003cbr\u003e no one can tell \u003cbr\u003eyou're American. When you speak \u003cbr\u003e English no one can tell \u003cbr\u003eyou're French. Too sick to go on. \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eAnne of Green Gables \u003c\/i\u003eFigurines.\u003cbr\u003eI'm always too sick \u003cbr\u003e to go on, that's\u003cbr\u003emy charm--a gray\u003cbr\u003eruin turned maroon \u003cbr\u003eturned black.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e*\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIt is easier to go mad, \u003cbr\u003eFrancisco says, \u003cbr\u003ethan one might think. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eEasy to lose things.\u003cbr\u003ePeople too. \u003cbr\u003ePerhaps too easy.\u003cbr\u003eStep inside \u003cbr\u003eand you may not\u003cbr\u003ecome back.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe listed the colors he liked: \u003cbr\u003eBlack.\u003cbr\u003eBlack.\u003cbr\u003eBlack.\u003cbr\u003eBlack.\u003cbr\u003eHe told himself \u003cbr\u003eto stay inside the painting\u003cbr\u003e of the chartreuse river, \u003cbr\u003e stay inside, Reader, \u003cbr\u003e and he found his arms \u003cbr\u003e roping and looping \u003cbr\u003e into Cassandra \u003cbr\u003e holding a tray \u003cbr\u003e of dead pigeons.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wesleyan University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50171435450561,"sku":"9780819502162","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0781\/5512\/0833\/files\/9780819502162.jpg?v=1777560188","url":"https:\/\/www.porchlightbooks.com\/products\/burning-oracle-sandra-simonds-9780819502162","provider":"Porchlight Book Company","version":"1.0","type":"link"}