Alive at the End of the World

Pierced by grief and charged with history, this new poetry collection from the award-winning author of Prelude to Bruise and How We Fight for Our Lives confronts our everyday apocalypses. In haunted poems glinting with laughter, Saeed Jones explores the public and private betrayals of life as we know it. With verve, wit, and elegant craft, Jones strips away American artifice in order to reveal the intimate grief of a mourning son and the collective grief bearing down on all of us. Drawing from memoir, fiction, and persona, Jones confronts the everyday perils of white supremacy with a finely tuned poetic ear, identifying moments that seem routine even as they open chasms of hurt. Viewing himself as an unreliable narrator, Jones looks outward to understand what’s within, bringing forth cultural icons like Little Richard, Paul Mooney, Aretha Franklin and Diahann Carroll to illuminate how long and how perilously we’ve been living on top of fault lines. As these poems seek ways to love and survive through America’s existential threats, Jones ushers his readers toward the realization that the end of the world is already here—and the apocalypse is a state of being. Product DetailsISBN-13: 9781566896511 Media Type: Paperback Publisher: Coffee House Press Publication Date: 09-13-2022 Pages: 104 Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.30(d)About the Author Saeed Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Lewisville, Texas. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and GQ, and he has been featured on public radio programs including NPR’s Fresh Air, Pop Culture Happy Hour, It’s Been A Minute with Sam Sanders, and All Things Considered. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his dog, Caesar, and tweets @TheFerocity.Table of Contents Table of Contents Foreword D. A. Powell vii Alive at the End of the World 1 Alive at the End of the World 5 A Memory 6 That's Not Snow, It's Ash 7 If You Had an Off Button, I'd Name You "Off" 8 A Song for the Status Quo 13 All I Gotta Do Is Stay Black and Die 14 It's 1975 and Paul Mooney Says "Nigger" a Hundred Times 15 Deleted Voice Message: Hey, Robyn-It's Me, Whitney 17 Grief #213 18 Saeed, or The Other One: I 19 Alive at the End of the World 25 Saeed, How Dare You Make Your Mother into a Prelude 27 Saeed Wonders If the Poem You Just Read Would've Been Better Served by a Different Title 28 Heritage 29 After the School Board Meeting 30 Black Ice 31 The Trial 32 Gravity 34 Aretha Franklin Hears an Echo While Singing "Save Me" 35 Diahann Carroll Takes a Bath at the Beverly Hills Hotel 37 Grief#913 38 Saeed, or the Other One: II 39 Alive at the End of the World 45 "Sorry as in Pathetic" 46 A Stranger 47 Okay, One More Story 48 Okay, One More Story 49 Date Night 50 The Essential American Worker 52 Against Progeny 53 A Difficult Love Song for Luther Vandross 54 Little Richard Listens to Pat Boone Sing "Tutti Frutti" 56 Grief #346 57 Saeed, or The Other One: III 58 Alive at the End of the World 63 Extinction 64 Everything Is Dying, Nothing Is Dead 65 A Spell to Banish Grief 66 The Dead Dozens 67 After Watching a Video of Cicely Tyson Singing a Hymn, I Realize I Wasn't a Good Grandson 68 Performing as Miss Calypso, Maya Angelou Dances Whenever She Forgets the Lyrics, which Billie Holiday, Seated in the Audience, Finds Annoying 69 At 84 Years Old, Toni Morrison Wonders If She's Depressed 70 All I Gotta Do Is Stay Black and Die (Apocalyptic Remix) 71 Grief #1 72 Saeed, or The Other One: IV 73 Notes at the End of the World 77 Show More