LITMIR.BIZ

       This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts

      Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.

      Library of Congress

      Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Christle, Heather, 1980–

      [Poems. Selections]

      Heliopause / Heather Christle.

      pages; cm. — (Wesleyan poetry series)

      ISBN 978-0-8195-7529-6 (hardcover) —

      ISBN 978-0-8195-7530-2 (ebook)

      I. Title.

      PS3603.H755A6 2015

      811'.6 — dc23 2014044266

      5 4 3 2 1

      Cover illustration: Aerolith by Andy Gilmore.

      ▪ for Harriet

      What is the language using us for?

      It uses us all and in its dark

      Of dark actions selections differ.

      I am not making a fool of myself

      For you. What I am making is

      A place for language in my life

      Which I want to be a real place

      Seeing I have to put up with it

      Anyhow.

      ▴ W. S. Graham

      Contents

       A Perfect Catastrophe 1

      ▴

       Disintegration Loop 1.1 5

      ▴

       Vernon Street 21

       Summer 23

       Realistic Flowers 25

       I Am Glad of Your Arrival 26

       It’s an Empire Out There 27

      ▴

       Elegy for Neil Armstrong 29

      ▴

       And This Too Comes Apart 39

       Hatch 41

       Such and Such a Time at Such and Such a Palace 42

       Me and My Head as Pieces of Wood 43

       Flowers Are Also Letters 44

       Nature Poem 45

       They Are Leaving You a Message 47

       Drapes 48

       Uncloudy 49

       Not Much More Room in the Cemetery 50

       As If No Light Could Warm You 51

      ▴

       How Long Is the Heliopause 53

      ▴

       Some Glamorous Country 61

       In the Dumps 62

       Pursuits 63

       Aesthetics of Crying 64

       Keep in Shape 65

       Optioned 66

       Annual 67

       Ecumene 68

      ▴

       Dear Seth 69

      ▴

       Poem for Bill Cassidy 87

      ▴

       Notes and Acknowledgments 93

      Heliopause