{"product_id":"part-of-the-bargain","title":"Part of the Bargain","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePart of the Bargain\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the Hayden Carruth Award and selected from nearly 1,000 entries, is both a cabinet of curiosities and a sweep of philosophical idylls. Hightower's poems range in style and subject, with soliloquies, laments, eccentric ponderings, and contemplations of appetite and art.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eDoor to the Terrace\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eYou withdraw from me like a match\u003cbr\u003e From a final cigarette and dance every\u003cbr\u003e Abandonment. The strains of music\u003cbr\u003e That accompany you float away with you.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book's epigraph evokes a Faustian contract, which is echoed in the tensions between urban and rural, light and dark, moral and amoral action. Hightower's influences--Sappho, Virgil, Blake, and Wilde--make their presence known as he reflects upon life in urban America after growing up in rural Texas, about coming of age as a gay man, about art and artists, poetry and painting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eSpending the Night\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNow, in another part of the country, \u003cbr\u003e I hear it called \"staying over.\"\u003cbr\u003e Back then, a couple of years\u003cbr\u003e was a gaping difference.\u003cbr\u003e The ornately carved door\u003cbr\u003e covering the strings of an upright\u003cbr\u003e melded into the headboard\u003cbr\u003e of the bed . . .\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePart of the Bargain\u003c\/i\u003e also explores the imperceptible reconciliations that one makes as an individual, a part of a community, and as a conscientious heir to a culture. Valences of sexuality, nationality, literality all swirl together and perform a balancing act as the poet aspires to pull back the curtain of \"the ineffable pageantry\" of our multilayered lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eScott Hightower\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of two books of poems, \u003ci\u003eTin Can Tourist\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNatural Trouble\u003c\/i\u003e. His writings have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including \u003ci\u003eSalmagundi\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Yale Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/i\u003e. He teaches at Fordham University and New York University and is a contributing editor to \u003ci\u003eThe Journal\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Scott Hightower","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44816583622698,"sku":"9781556592324","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/part-of-the-bargain-7026112.jpg?v=1789040707","url":"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/products\/part-of-the-bargain","provider":"The Poetry Shop LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}