{"product_id":"9781555976606","title":"Scratching the Ghost: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, selected by Major Jackson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe stub of your left leg dangles as I hold you up, my hands inserted under your arms like a child. You are complaining about the itch,\u003cbr\u003ethe burn; scratch the ghost of your calf and heel.\u003cbr\u003e —from \"Scratching the Ghost\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDexter L. Booth's ruminations on loss in this award-winning debut are rooted in a time past but one still palpable and persistent. Here are memories of love lost, family mourned, a father absent, ghosts of hometowns and childhood. Here too is a \"Short Letter to the Twentieth Century\" and, finally, a \"Long Letter to the Twentieth Century,\" as if across this collection the poet is mustering up the force to speak back to history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In Dexter Booth's \u003ci\u003eScratching the Ghost\u003c\/i\u003e, a cracked egg means the universe is splitting, the slap of a double-dutch rope is a broken-throated hymn, and splitting a squealing hog is akin to lovemaking. These are poems loyal to their own intrepid logic and reckless plausibility. Yet, lest the reader get too giddy in a fun house of mirrors, here, too, are the melodic laments and remarkable lyric passages of a poet who acknowledges the infinite current of melancholy that underlines his journey.\" —Major Jackson\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Graywolf Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47056675668208,"sku":"9781555976606","price":13.71,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781555976606_p0.jpg?v=1763754471","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781555976606","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}