{"product_id":"9781935210627","title":"Risk","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eRisk\u003c\/i\u003e is a poetic autobiography played out on a kaleidoscopic panorama of history. Skeen's poems document a working-class childhood in Kentucky and Ohio, the loss of a brother, a mother's face 'as hard and bright as Formica,' and they detail the unexpected gift of a comfortable middle age in California, 'where \/ even convertibles make sense.' Skeen moves through the world with equal parts wariness and gratitude.\"—Gary Young\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eRisk\u003c\/i\u003e holds the details of the past up to the light of the present with an eye that rescues American life mid-century. Most importantly, each poem risks the clarity necessary to discover the meaning of who we have become.\"—Christopher Buckley\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMy Brother's Trombone\u003cbr\u003efor Ernie\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe instrument didn't come naturally to him.\u003cbr\u003eNothing came naturally to him, not even death.\u003cbr\u003eHe drowned in \"The Song of the Volga Boatman.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Mastodon\" rolled over and refused to come to life.\u003cbr\u003eI had my own troubles with the cornet.\u003cbr\u003eIf he showed warnings of the difficulty ahead,\u003cbr\u003eI didn't take notice. Thirteen years old, I lorded\u003cbr\u003eit over his twelve. I kept my instrument behind\u003cbr\u003emy mother's cedar chest for years until I swapped\u003cbr\u003eit for a Brad Krieger painting which takes my mind\u003cbr\u003eoff that time. After he was shot, I wanted to sell\u003cbr\u003ehis trombone or give it away or bury it with his body.\u003cbr\u003eWhat good would that have done when each time I see a paperclip\u003cbr\u003eI recall the sound of his breath slipping through that trombone?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTim Skeen\u003c\/b\u003e, who won the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry in 2001 for his book \u003ci\u003eKentucky Swami\u003c\/i\u003e, coordinates the MFA program in creative writing at California State University, Fresno.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"White Pine Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47057591927024,"sku":"9781935210627","price":14.77,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781935210627_p0.jpg?v=1763658079","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781935210627","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}