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Barter: Poems

"Barter exchanges history for myth, direct speech for epistles, activity for observation ... breathtaking." —Claudia Rankine

Felix the Rat's hind feet

could be Barbie hands—

same pink, same

injection-molded seaming. — from "Electronica"

The poems in Barter, Monica Youn's exciting first collection, negotiate transactions between scarcity and excess, pornography and abstraction, the thing and the thing seen. Rendered with a dazzling array of structures and allusions, these poems describe — and become — a strange gallery of paintings and portraits. She offers a Polaroid left on a windshield, step-by-step instructions for "Drawing for Absolute Beginners," a stereoscope with a box of slides. Both an homage to and a warning against nonexistent things, Barter introduces a vibrant new voice and a new way of seeing.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 64
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781555973810
  • Genres
  • poetry
  • Release date
  • 2003