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    The Smoke of Horses
    The Smoke of Horses
    The Smoke of Horses
    Ebook86 pages52 minutes

    The Smoke of Horses

    By Charles Rafferty

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    About this ebook

    In this fascinating new collection by longtime poet Charles Rafferty, evocative prose poems insert strange and mysterious twists into otherwise mundane middle-class scenarios. With wonderful intelligence and imagination, these compact, revelatory poems show us what is possible when we jettison accepted devices of thought for methods that are stranger, and much truer.

    Charles Rafferty is the author of six collections of poetry, one collection of stories, and two poetry chapbooks. He lives in Sandy Hook, CT, where he works at a technology research firm, directs the MFA program at Albertus Magnus College, and teaches in the Westport Writers' Workshop.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBOA Editions Ltd.
    Release dateSep 18, 2017
    ISBN9781942683483
    The Smoke of Horses

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      Book preview

      The Smoke of Horses - Charles Rafferty

      [image: cover]

      The Smoke of Horses

      Copyright © 2017 by Charles Rafferty

      All rights reserved

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      First Edition

      17  18  19  20  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

      For information about permission to reuse any material from this book, please contact The Permissions Company at www.permissionscompany.com or e-mail permdude@gmail.com.

      Publications by BOA Editions, Ltd.—a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code—are made possible with funds from a variety of sources, including public funds from the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the County of Monroe, NY. Private funding sources include the Lannan Foundation for support of the Lannan Translations Selection Series; the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; the Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust; the Rochester AreaCommunity Foundation; the Steeple-Jack Fund; the Ames-Amzalak Memorial Trust in memory of Henry Ames, Semon Amzalak, and Dan Amzalak; and contributions from many individuals nationwide. See Colophon on page 76 for special individual acknowledgments.

      Cover Art: Alphabet by Colleen Buzzard

      Cover Design: Sandy Knight

      Interior Design and Composition: Richard Foerster

      Manufacturing: McNaughton & Gunn

      BOA Logo: Mirko

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Rafferty, Charles, 1965– author.

      Title: The smoke of horses : poems / by Charles Rafferty.

      Description: First Edition. | Rochester, NY : BOA Editions Ltd., [2017] | Series: American Poets Continuum Series ; no. 164

      Identifiers: LCCN 2017010671 (print) | LCCN 2017013552 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942683483 (eBook) | ISBN 9781942683476 (paperback)

      Subjects: | BISAC: POETRY / American / General. | LITERARY COLLECTIONS / American / General.

      Classification: LCC PS3568.A378 (ebook) | LCC PS3568.A378 A6 2017 (print) | DDC 811/.54—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017010671

      BOA Editions, Ltd.

      250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306

      Rochester, NY 14607

      www.boaeditions.org

      A. Poulin, Jr., Founder (1938–1996)

      Contents

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      After the Flood

      Diminution

      Grackles

      Golf Course Moon

      An Adulterous Spring

      A Demonstration of How One Thing Leads to Another

      The Problem with Where We Live

      Drift

      Mal Evans Counting

      Futility

      The Man Who Bled Wine

      First Owl

      Reflection

      The Problem with Wanting Something

      Unnoticed

      Fitting

      The Problem with Sappho

      Attraction

      Insomnolence

      State of Affairs

      Flags

      Genie

      Metropolitan

      The Problem with African Violets

      Winter Festival

      Leisure

      Caught

      Two Pianos

      Two People Kissing in the Park as Seen from a Speeding Train

      Windows

      For the Last Polaroid

      Carp

      Aqueduct

      Quarry

      The Reductionist

      Resumption

      Royalty

      Barbarian

      Garden State Racetrack

      The Problem

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