{"product_id":"scratching-the-ghost","title":"Scratching the Ghost: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, selected by Major Jackson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe stub of your left leg dangles\u003cbr\u003eas I hold you up, my hands inserted under your arms\u003cbr\u003elike a child. You are complaining about the itch,\u003cbr\u003ethe burn; scratch the ghost of your calf and heel.\u003cbr\u003e                        —from \"Scratching the Ghost\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDexter L. Booth's ruminations on loss in this award-winning debut are rooted in a time past but one still palpable and persistent. Here are memories of love lost, family mourned, a father absent, ghosts of hometowns and childhood. Here too is a \"Short Letter to the Twentieth Century\" and, finally, a \"Long Letter to the Twentieth Century,\" as if across this collection the poet is mustering up the force to speak back to history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In Dexter Booth's \u003ci\u003eScratching the Ghost\u003c\/i\u003e, a cracked egg means the universe is splitting, the slap of a double-dutch rope is a broken-throated hymn, and splitting a squealing hog is akin to lovemaking. These are poems loyal to their own intrepid logic and reckless plausibility. Yet, lest the reader get too giddy in a fun house of mirrors, here, too, are the melodic laments and remarkable lyric passages of a poet who acknowledges the infinite current of melancholy that underlines his journey.\" —Major Jackson\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46531514892498,"sku":"9781555976606","price":17.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/1_44ea09b3-869c-42bb-8c40-d70e7b0fc208.jpg?v=1763136707","url":"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/products\/scratching-the-ghost","provider":"Indigo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}