{"product_id":"what-i-can-do-paperback","title":"What I Can Do - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eErik Wilbur\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first half of Erik Wilbur's debut chapbook illustrates a young man's struggle to maintain his relationship with a father who's battling addiction; the second half illustrates a young man's struggle to process the grief of losing his father to that addiction. At points, this beautiful, imagistic meditation on acceptance reads like a survival guide for adult children of alcoholics. At points, it's a testament to poetry's capacity to conjure comfort and forgiveness during life's most anxiety-and-resentment-laden moments.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for What I Can Do\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt goes like this: you will desire to bring back to life every single person you will ever lose. After all, \"Father,\" as Erik Wilbur writes, \"is just a name for desire.\" And in these rugged-necked poems, which Levis might call, ever \"widening spells,\" Wilbur sifts through the dark wrecking yard of elegy, through junked refrigerators and mounting bolts and diesel exhaust. It is from those discarded materials that the poet must re-fashion a monument and call it a father. But the greatest test of What I Can Do is found in the nuance with which its author must employ in order to navigate the gargantuan and soul-crushing complexity of the relationship between an addict father and his children. Erik Wilbur writes through these challenges with bluntness, with desperation, with honesty, and finally, with kindness. This is a hard-won debut  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEphraim Scott Sommers, author of \u003cem\u003eSomeone You Love Is Still Alive\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Father is just a name for desire,\" in the poet's own words, says more about this body of work than anyone else could. Erik Wilbur has the ability, which so many writers covet, to dissect memories (of father, of family, of the self) with a candid blade. This chapbook relentlessly uncovers. Nostalgia is reworked and reanimated; memories, places, actions, are taken apart and reassembled. Poets are gifted the opportunity to derive resonance from recall. This poet does so with remarkable skill. You, reader, will hold each of these poems \"the way a riverbed wants to hold a river.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRonald Dzerigian, author of \u003cem\u003eRough Fire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 44\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.11 x 9.02 x 5.98 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 08, 2020\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47351753146617,"sku":"9798691115134","price":13.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/dDhHUG5uVklFWE5kWU9DNlpZeFdOdz09.webp?v=1769800915","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/what-i-can-do-paperback","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}