ATOMIC GHOST POETS RESPOND to the NUCLEAR AGE EDITED by JOHN BRADLEY Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams
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ATOMIC GHOST POETS RESPOND TO THE NUCLEAR AGE EDITED BY JOHN BRADLEY Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams COFFEE HOUSE PRESS :: MINNEAPOLIS :: MCMXCV Contents Preface by John Bradley Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams PART I—CREATION 3 Benjamin Alire Saenz Creation 5 Alan Napier Tulum Saw the Coming 7 S.L. Wisenberg May 28, 1945 10 Kent Johnson High Altitude Photo of Hiroshima (Circa 1944) n Kimiko Hahn The Bath: August 6, 1945 14 Marc Kaminsky Questions 15 TogeSankichi At the Makeshift Aid Station, translated by Richard H. Minear 17 Philip Levine The Horse 19 James Tate Landof Little Sticks, 1945 20 Kent Johnson Trilobytes 22 Toge Sankichi The Shadow, translated by Richard H. Minear 24 John Engels The Fish Dream 25 John Bradley Sailors Shielding Their Eyes During Atomic Bomb Test, Bikini, 1947 28 TogeSankichi August6,1950, translated by Richard H. Minear 31 Robert Morgan Uranium 33 Adrienne Rich For Ethel Rosenberg 38 PaulZimmer But Bird 40 David Mura TTie Hibakusha's Letter (1955) 43 Robert Vasquez Early Morning Test Light over Nevada, 1953 45 Lynn Emanuel The Planet Krypton 47 Gregory Corso Bomb 53 Adrian C. Louis Nevada Red Blues 56 Denise Levertov Watching Dark Circle 57 Adrienne Rich Trying to Talk with a Man 59 Richard Wilbur Advice to a Prophet 61 Ai The Testimony off. Robert Oppenheimer 64 Antonia Quintana Pigno Oppenheimer PART II—ATOMIC GHOST 71 Mark Strand When the Vacation Is Over for Good 72 Lorine Niedecker "The radio talk..." 73 William Stafford At the Bomb Testing Site 74 Gary Snyder Vapor Trails 75 William Heyen N 77 John Engman Mushroom Clouds 78 Diane Glancy Harry S Truman Library, Independence, Missouri 81 David Ray For Harry S Truman in Hell 83 Ronald Wallace The Hell Mural: Panel I 85 John Balaban Atomic Ghost 86 Gary Snyder Strategic Air Command 87 Jorie Graham What the End Is For 91 June Jordan Directions for Carrying Explosive Nuclear Wastes through Metropolitan New York 93 C.K.Williams Tar 96 Gary Metras Utilities Advertisement in the Wake of Three Mile Island 97 Jeffrey Hillard The Message 100 Mary Jo Salter Chernobyl 102 Sujata Bhatt Wine from Bordeaux 105 Jerah Chadwick Eight-Legged Colt, Chernobyl 106 LyubovSirota Radiophobia, translated by Leonid Levin and Elisavietta Ritchie 108 Maureen Hurley Country of Origin 112 Jack Marshall In the Shadow of the Poisoned Wind 113 Barbara Kingsolver Waiting for the Invasion PART IE—LATE SPRING IN THE NUCLEAR AGE 117 Andrew Hudgins Late Spring in the Nuclear Age 118 James Grabill The Lightning 120 EdwinaTrentham Hurricane Season 122 Jana Harris Dream of the Hair-Buming Smell 124 Honor Moore Spuyten Duyvil 133 Stephen Dunn The Cocked Finger 135 Antler Bringing Zeus to His Knees 137 jWilliam Dickey Armageddon 140 Daniela Gioseffi from The Last Fire Feast 141 Judy Ray Rose Bay Willow Herb 143 Dorianne Laux The Garden 145 James Grabill A Dream of the Closeness ofVenus 149 Sharon Olds When 150 W.D. Ehrhart The Way Light Bends 151 George MacBeth The Crab-Apple Crisis 160 Christopher Buckley Why I'm in Favor of a Nuclear Freeze 162 William Greenway The Atom Bum 163 Charles Martin Terminal Colloquy 164 Thomas McGrath Nuclear Winter 165 Nicholas Samaras Nuclear Winter 166 Peter Blue Cloud (Aroniawenrate) Deeper Than a Dream 167 Terrance Keenan After the Neutron 168 Ellen Bass They're Family Men 170 Allan Cooper To an Unborn Child 174 Paul Zimmer Because of Duties, Zimmer Had Forgotten the Forest 175 Peter Oresick from An American Peace 177 Maurya Simon Tale Before the End of the World 179 Amber Coverdale Sumrall Silence at the End of the World 181 David Romtvedt Eating Dinner at My Sister's PART IV—GATHERED AT THE RIVER 185 Eleanor Wilner High Noon at Los Alamos 187 Barbara La Morticella A Liturgy for Trinity j 191 Edward A. Dougherty Why I Think About Hiroshima and Nagasaki 193 Andrea Collins Hiroshima Day at the Riviera Coffeeshop 195 MaryJoSalter Welcome to Hiroshima 197 Galway Kinnell The Fundamental Project of Technology 199 Lucien.Stryk Return to Hiroshima 202 Kurihara Sadako When We Say "Hiroshima," translated by Richard H. Minear 204 Carolyn Forche The Garden Shukkei-en 206 MaxineKumin How to Survive Nuclear War 209 Stephanie Strickland Shadow 2ii Margaret Gibson Radiation 215 Denise Levertov Gathered at the River 218 Nanao Sakaki Memorandum 220 Jay Griswold Origami in Nancy Eimers, Another Kimono 224 William Witherup Mervyn Clyde Witherup 226 Roger Greenwald The Half-Life of Sorrow PART V—PREPARING THE NETS 229 Thomas McGrath War Resisters' Song 230 Sharon Doubiago Ground Zero 239 David Romtvedt Black Beauty, A Praise 243 Mark Sanders A Vigil at a Missile Silo 245 Allen Ginsberg Plutonian Ode 250 John Brandi Preparing the Nets at New Stuyahok 251 David McKain Opening Day 253 Joseph Bruchac Wahsah Zeh (War Dance)—As Long as the Grass 263 Patricia Goedicke Shadow PART VI—PRAYER FOR CONTINUATION 267 Peter Huchel Psalm, translated by Daniel Simko 268 William Witherup The Lamb of Peace, The Ram of War 269 Beryle Williams Strategies for Survival 272 Linda Hogan Prayer for Men and Children 274 Naomi Shihab Nye Shoulders 275 Alicia Ostriker An Army of Lovers 277 Susan Griffin Prayer for Continuation 290 Elizabeth Spires Sunday Afternoon at Fulham Palace 293 CD. Wright On the Eve of Our Mutually Assured Destruction 295 Kelly Cherry Prayer for a Future Beyond Ideology and War 297 ShinkichiTakahashi Destruction, translated by Lucien Stryk, with Takashi Ikemoto 298 ShinkichiTakahashi Explosion, translated by Lucien Stryk, with Takashi Ikemoto 299 David Ignatow Simultaneously 300 Pamela Uschuk Of Simple Intent 302 Rolfjacobsen Green Light, translated by Roger Greenwald 305 Notes on the contributors 317 Acknowledgements / 327 Index.