Boss Cupid
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A great poet's freshest, most provocative book.He dreams at the center of a closed system,Like the prison system, or a system of love,Where folktale, recipe, and household customRefer back to the maze that they are of.—from "A System: PCP, or Angel Dust" Taste and appetite are contraposed in Boss Cupid, the twelfth book of poems by the quintessential San Francisco poet, who is also the quintessential craftsman and quintessentially a love poet, though not of quintessential love.Variations on how we are ruled by our desires, these poems make a startling and eloquent gloss on wanton want, moving freely from the story of King David and Bathsheba to Arthur Rimbaud's diet to the tastes of Jeffrey Dahmer. As warm and intelligent as it is ribald and cunning, this collection of Thom Gunn's is his richest yet.The Threepenny Review - August Kleinzahler[Gunn] becomes more adventuresome as he grows older . . . Sometimes the poems are so emotionally bald and direct that they are deeply disturbing.
Duncan3The Antagonism5A Home7My Mother's Pride9The Gas-poker10A Young Novelist12In the Post Office13Postscript: The Panel16The Butcher's Son18An Operation20The Problem23Arethusa Saved25Arethusa Raped28Arachne30Enough31Cat Island32Nights with the Speed Bros.34A System35Sequel37Shit39The Dump41Jokes, etc43Saturday Night45American Boy47Painting by Vuillard49Famous Friends53A GI in 194355Front Bar of the Lone Star57To Donald Davie in Heaven59A Los Angeles Childhood61The Artist as an Old Man63'The little cousin dashed in'65Classics66'7 a.m. in the bar'67Hi68Coffee on Cole69Letters from Manhattan71'Save the word'73Convergence74Blues for the New Year, 199776Aubade78The Search79Office Hours80'Stories of bar-fights'82'First saw him'84Troubadour: Hitch-hiker87Troubadour: Iron Man89Troubadour: The Visible Man90Troubadour: A Borrowed Man91Troubadour: Final Song93Coffee Shop95Rapallo96In Trust98To Cupid100Front Door Man102A Wood Near Athens105First Song108Dancing David: God110Dancing David: Bathsheba112Dancing David: Abishag114Acknowledgements and Notes115
