Like a Beggar

<p><B>Paterson Poetry Prize Finalist 2015</p><p>Featured on NPR's <I>The Writer's Almanac</I></B></p><p>“Ellen Bass's new poetry collection <I>Like a Beggar</I> pulses with sex humor and compassion.—<I>The New York Times</I></p><p>“Bass tries to convey everyday wonder on contemporary experiences of sex work aging and war. Those who turn to poetry to become confidants for another's stories and secrets will not be disappointed.—<I>Publishers Weekly</I></p><p>“In her fifth book of poetry Bass addresses everything from Saturn's rings and Newton's law of gravitation to wasps and Pablo Neruda. Her words are nostalgic vivid and visceral. Bass arrives at the truth of human carnality rooted in the extraordinary need and promise of the individual. Bass shows us that we are as radiant as we are ephemeral that in transience glistens resilient history and the remarkable fluidity of connection. By the collection's end—following her musings on suicide and generosity desire and repetition—it becomes lucidly clear that Bass is not only a poet but also a philosopher and a storyteller.—<I>Booklist</I></p><p>Ellen Bass brings a deft touch as she continues her ongoing interrogations of crucial moral issues of our times while simultaneously delighting in endearing human absurdities. From the start of Like a Beggar Bass asks her readers to relax even though bad things are going to happen because the bad gets mined for all manner of goodness.</p><p><B>From Another Story:</B></p><p>After dinner we're drinking scotch at the kitchen table.<BR>Janet and I just watched a NOVA special<BR>and we're explaining to her mother<BR>the age and size of the universe—<BR>the hundred billion stars in the hundred billion galaxies.<BR>Dotty lives at Dominican Oaks making her way down the long hall.<BR>How about the sun? she asks a little farmshit in the endlessness.<BR>I gather up a cantaloupe a lime a cherry<BR>and start revolving this salad around the chicken carcass.<BR>This is the best scotch I ever tasted Dotty says<BR>even though we gave her the Maker's Mark<BR>while we're drinking Glendronach...</p><p><B>Ellen Bass</B>'s poetry includes <I> Like A Beggar </I>(Copper Canyon Press 2014) <I>The Human Line </I> (Copper Canyon Press 2007) which was named a Notable Book by the <I>San Francisco Chronicle</I> and <I>Mules of Love</I> (BOA 2002) which won the Lambda Literary Award. She co-edited (with Florence Howe) the groundbreaking <I>No More Masks! An Anthology of Poems by Women </I>(Doubleday 1973). Her work has frequently been published in <I>The New Yorker American Poetry Review The New Republic The Sun </I> and many other journals. She is co-author of several non-fiction books including <I>The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse </I>(HarperCollins 1988 2008) which has sold over a million copies and been translated into twelve languages. She is part of the core faculty of the MFA writing program at Pacific University.</p><BR>