Barter: Poems

"Barter exchanges history for myth, direct speech for epistles, activity for observation . . . breathtaking." --Claudia Rankine

Felix the Rat's hind feet
could be Barbie hands--
same pink, same
injection-molded seaming.--from "Electronica"

The poems in Barter, Monica Youn's exciting first collection, negotiate transactions between scarcity and excess, pornography and abstraction, the thing and the thing seen. Rendered with a dazzling array of structures and allusions, these poems describe--and become--a strange gallery of paintings and portraits. She offers a Polaroid left on a windshield, step-by-step instructions for "Drawing for Absolute Beginners," a stereoscope with a box of slides. Both an homage to and a warning against nonexistent things, Barter introduces a vibrant new voice and a new way of seeing.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 05/01/2003
ISBN: 9781555973810
Pages: 64
Weight: 0.32lbs
Size: 8.86h x 6.36w x 0.28d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 04/21/2003 pg. 58
Library Journal 06/01/2003 pg. 127