Quarry: Poems

The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Summer 8-2015 Quarry: Poems Christina Ann Rothenbeck University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Rothenbeck, Christina Ann, "Quarry: Poems" (2015). Dissertations. 134. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/134 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi QUARRY: POEMS by Christina Ann Rothenbeck Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2015 ABSTRACT QUARRY: POEMS by Christina Ann Rothenbeck August 2015 A book-length poetry manuscript including poems about hunting, illness, domesticity, illness, girlhood, and the body. ii COPYRIGHT BY CHRISTINA ANN ROTHENBECK 2015 The University of Southern Mississippi QUARRY: POEMS by Christina Ann Rothenbeck A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: __________________________________________ Dr. Rebecca Morgan Frank, Committee Chair Assistant Professor, English __________________________________________ Dr. Angela Ball, Committee Member Professor, English __________________________________________ Dr. Monika Gehlawat, Committee Member Associate Professor, English _________________________________________ Dr. Ellen Weinauer, Committee Member Dean, Honors College __________________________________________ Dr. Nicolle Jordan, Committee Member Associate Professor, English _________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School August 2015 DEDICATION For Sally Kugelmeyer, who showed me the road; Jim Harms and Mary Ann Samyn, who gave me the maps; and Angela Ball and Rebecca Morgan Frank, who got me to the destination. For the Poet Girls, who helped me endure the journey. And for my family, in loving thanks for their constant and unwavering patience and support. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks go to my committee chair, Dr. Rebecca Morgan Frank, and to my other committee members, Dr. Angela Ball, Dr. Monika Gehlawat, Dr. Nicolle Jordan, and Dr. Ellen Weinauer, for their advice, mentorship, sharing of personal libraries, dinners, and support throughout my time at The University of Southern Mississippi, and especially in my final year of reading and writing. Thanks also to Dr. Joyce Inman for the gift of her knowledge and friendship, and to my colleagues in workshop for their support and commentary. I have been incredibly lucky. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................ix WORKS CITED..............................................................................................................xxii POETRY Par-Force ...............................................................................................................................1 Small Wars ............................................................................................................................2 Thirteen .................................................................................................................................3 Suggestions for School Dress ...............................................................................................4 High School ..........................................................................................................................5 Bestiary: Rules for Hawks ....................................................................................................6 Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board .......................................................................................7 A Home Art ...........................................................................................................................8 First Crush .............................................................................................................................9 High School .........................................................................................................................10 I Dream About Bringing my Boyfriend to my 20 th Reunion ............................................... 11 Maybe I Was the Doe ...........................................................................................................12 Hold Up Your Heads, Girls! .................................................................................................13 Spring 1983 ..........................................................................................................................14 Raptor ...................................................................................................................................15 Often a Girl Gets Tired of Enjoying Herself ........................................................................16 vi Bestiary: The Hounds ..........................................................................................................17 Quarry ..................................................................................................................................18 Doe Fever .............................................................................................................................19 There’s a Girl in This House Who’s in Love With a Ghost .................................................20 Oneirology ...........................................................................................................................22 Backstory .............................................................................................................................23 This is Getting a Little Desperate ........................................................................................24 Girl’s Guide to the Apocalypse ............................................................................................25 Migraine ...............................................................................................................................26 Solitary .................................................................................................................................27 Avoska ..................................................................................................................................28 My Mother on American Bandstand ....................................................................................29 Oh My Darling .....................................................................................................................30 Maybe it’s Like This ............................................................................................................31 I Could Be Your Bird ...........................................................................................................32 Forgive Me, Donna Reed, for I Have Sinned ......................................................................33 Sleepwalker ..........................................................................................................................34 The First Metaphor ..............................................................................................................35 It Is in the Hope of Being Useful that the Following Instructions Are Offered ...................36 Weather in the Nineteenth Century ......................................................................................37 Ghost Story ..........................................................................................................................38 Our Bodies Can Become Diamonds ....................................................................................39 Some Days, I Just Want to Love the Ordinary .....................................................................40 vii Changeling ...........................................................................................................................41 Anatomical Venus ................................................................................................................42 NOTES .............................................................................................................................................43 viii INTRODUCTION In The Pink Guitar: Writing as Feminist Practice , Rachel Blau DuPlessis argues, “A woman writer is a *marked marker.* She is marked by the cultural attributes of Woman, gender, sexuality, the feminine, a whole bolus of contradictory representations” (161). I believe that I, as a woman, am “marked” by inescapable gendered expectations from without, and that my performance of gender—including my writing—either conforms

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