Brutal Imagination

A poet struggles to understand the role of the black man in America by evoking slave images to show the African-American family in crisis across three centuries.

Literature & Fiction

Eady, Cornelius

Poetry

Putnam Adult

Finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry Brutal Imagination is the work of a poet at the peak of his considerable powers, confronting a crucial subject: the black man in America. “A hymn to all the sons this country has stolen from her African-American families.”—The Village Voice This poetry collection explores the vision of the black man in white imagination, as well as the black family and the barriers of color, class, and caste that tear it apart. These two main themes showcase Cornelius Eady’s range: his deft wit, inventiveness, and skillfully targeted anger, and the way in which he combines the subtle with the charged, street idiom with elegant inversions, harsh images with the sweetly ordinary.
 Includes poems that inspired the libretto for Eady’s music-drama Running Man, a 1999 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Brutal Imagination: Poems

G.P.Putnam's Sons

Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems

A new volume of poetic works by the Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Award-winning author of Brutal Imagination reflects on such topics as his transition from urban renter to non-plussed rural homeowner, the sobering influence of war, and the intimation of the writer's own mortality. Simultaneous.

From Cornelius Eady, one of America's most engaging voices, comes an exciting collection of poetry that at once delineates the arc of the poet's universe and highlights the range of his considerable talents. Cornelius Eady’s poems show him in full control of his considerable talents and displaying a rich maturity as he enters midlife. His poems are sly, unsentimental, and witty, full of truths that are intimate and profound. Hardheaded Weather ranges widely, reflecting the new found responsibilities Eady has assumed as he transitions from urban renter to nonplussed rural homeowner, as well as the sobering influence of war and the intimation of his own mortality. Yet even at his angriest, the poet has always had a depth of compassion rare in our polarized age, with a sense of humor that is both sophisticated and demotic. These poems will resonate deeply. As exciting as the new poems are, his selected earlier poems dazzle, too, as they demonstrate the arc of Cornelius Eady’s maturation and the originality of his voice. Taken together, Hardheaded Weather forms a moving—and sometimes searing—testament to the power of poetry.

History & Criticism

Penguin Publishing Group

You Don't Miss Your Water: Poems

Here are twenty-one poems yoked by thought and language to the filial bond and set in motion by the looming death of a cold and distant father. Whether physically absent or emotionally estranged, the father in these poems has always been a dominating, difficult presence in the lives of his family: the daughter run wild, the son who has disappointed, the wife he never did marry. Watching his father ebb away, the poet wonders at the man's ornery and cantankerous reality even in the face of death - and at his own newfound sense of power. But as well, he searches for a bond, an acknowledgment that he is his father's son.

Henry Holt Co.

Poems focus on the thoughts of the narrator as he sits at his father's deathbed

A collection of poetry by Cornelius Eady.

The Gathering of My Name (Carnegie Mellon Poetry)

Carnegie Mellon Univ Pr

A collection of poetry by Cornelius Eady.

Carnegie-Mellon University Press

Presents a collection of poems, including "Money Won't Change It," "Rodney King Blues," and "Small Moments."

The Autobiography of a Jukebox: Poems (Carnegie Mellon Poetry)

A collection of poetry by Cornelius Eady.

The Autobiography of a Jukebox

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eady, Cornelius. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Eady, Cornelius

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eady, Cornelius. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Brutal Imagination

Brutal Imagination: Poems

Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems

Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems

You Don't Miss Your Water: Poems

You Don't Miss Your Water: Poems

The Gathering of My Name (Carnegie Mellon Poetry)

The Gathering of My Name (Carnegie Mellon Poetry)

The Autobiography of a Jukebox: Poems (Carnegie Mellon Poetry)

The Autobiography of a Jukebox