{"product_id":"9780930829643","title":"A Bedroom Occupation: Love Elegies","description":"\u003cp\u003e“Tricky language about the sticky stuff: this is bedroom-and-beyond talk from the past master, the rake, the raider, the witty and lonely rider. Enjoy here a bard’s bodywork, least love’s locutions. You have never read such confessions. John Donne, meet Mark Scott.”—Alicia Ostriker\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Mark Scott is one of our finest American poets. And here is, I think, his most challenging work. From the first sentence of \u003ci\u003eA Bedroom Occupation\u003c\/i\u003e we are taken by a voice that is unsentimental and unafraid of the dark on a nighttime tour of solitude.”—Richard Rodriguez\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUntangling the aftermath of gratified desire, Mark Scott’s melancholy, letter-like poems are not always easy, not always pleasant, but you’ll read him wide-eyed, laughing, identifying with the characters and the situations—unless you’ve never had lovers or friends:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLewis, you tell me not to choose my freedom, a desolate heart, but to remain in delight\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e                with one woman. Too late; I moved out; I can’t retrieve\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ethat message where you sent it: Lauren changed our code. And if I could, why should\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e                what works for our friend work for me? He seems happy,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003esays he’s comfortable (which reminds him he doesn’t have “the fuck-you money yet”).\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e                And he’s consistent, stable. But his waters don’t run deep.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMine do—or so I’ve been told. “If that’s how you feel,” Lauren said, “you’d better\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e                move out.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMark Scott\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eTactile Values,\u003c\/i\u003e has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review, Poetry, The Kenyon Review,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Poetry Anthology, 1912-2002: Ninety Years of America’s Most Distinguished Verse Magazine.\u003c\/i\u003e He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, where he teaches at the College of Saint Mary.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lumen Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47008623952112,"sku":"9780930829643","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780930829643_p0.jpg?v=1763854940","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780930829643","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}