The Year of No Mistakes

by Cristin O'keefe Aptowicz

Overview

In The Year of No Mistakes, Aptowicz goes cross country and tackles themes like love, lust, heartache and ambition in poems set in cities across the United States. While the backbone of the book is the slow break-up of her decade-long relationship, the heart remains Aptowicz falling in love with Americana. Sharply observant and unflinchingly truthful, her poems may be funny or heartbreaking, spare or lush, bright or dark, but they are always honest and engaging working class poems. Written during the fellowship year of her National Endowment for the Arts grant, poems from this collection have already been published in over four dozen literary journals and have been performed in venues across the country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938912344
Publisher:	Write Bloody Publishing
Publication date:	10/05/2013
Pages:	100
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is an American poet who was recently awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. She is the author of five books of poetry, including the recently released Everything is Everthing (Write Bloody Publishing), as well as the canonical slam history, Words in Your Face (Soft Skull Press), which U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins wrote "leaves no doubt that the slam poetry scene has achieved legitimacy and taken its rightful place on the map of contemporary literature.” Recent awards: U Penn residency and Amy Clampitt Residency.

Table of Contents

I

These United States 15

Manhattan 17

Brooklyn 18

The Bowery 20

The Bowery Bees 21

A Brief History of the Bowery Poetry Club 22

On Walking in New York City 24

II

Simulacrum 29

Shortly After Moving to Philadelphia for a Writing Residency, I Decide to Walk Home in a Goddamn Heat Wave 30

The Waiting Room of the GYN 31

How We Do 32

My Tiny God 33

West Philly 34

What Could Go Wrong 35

An Unintentional Metaphor for What Happened Next 37

Horrible Moving Tips You Could Glean From My Most Recent Move 38

August 2011 Triptych 40

III

Austin 45

Through the Looking Glass 46

The Road Most Traveled Never Left Queens 47

Unemployment 48

Trickle Down Economics 49

IV

Autofill 53

Every Bad Thought 54

Fight There Yes 55

To Everyone Who Said It Was Going to Be Okay 56

Where It Ends 57

The Telling 58

Summer Weather 59

33 & 1/3 60

Things that Happened During Petsitting that I Remind Myself Are Not Metaphors for My Heart 61

Cleave 62

Girls in Their Winter Dresses 63

V

What I Meant When I Said Failure 67

Op-Ed for The Sad Sack Review, Regarding News of Another Rash of Writer Suicides 68

Said the Fly Killing Itself Trying to Escape Through a Closed Window, Completely Ignoring the Open Door 69

Wild Geese 70

The Poets' Wedding in New Orleans 71

June 72

Your Friends Are Having More Sex Than You 73

Your Wife 74

Married Men 75

Self Portrait as My Dachshund Max 76

VI

Not Doing Something Wrong Isn't the Same As Doing Something Right 81

New Year's Eve 82

February 83

March 84

Crush 85

July 86

October 87

November 88

Atlas 89

Number One With a Bullet 90

In the Dark, He Whispered 91

Bluegrass 92

December 93

January 94

Mixed Metaphor 95

VII

The Closure Hotel 99

Inventory 100

Tourist in the Place I Used to Live 101

After the Break-Up, a Married Friend Tells Me She's Jealous Because of How Boring Her Marriage Can Be 102

The End of It 103

Editorial Reviews

"...leaves no doubt that the slam poetry scene has achieved legitimacy and taken its rightful place on the map of contemporary literature.” -- U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Words in Your Face

From the Publisher