Carlson-Wee - Rail

Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to the editors of the following magazines in which some of these poems first appeared: Adroit: Wolf Heaven; The Arkansas International: Riding the Highline, North Shore Recovery; Best New Poets: Thresher, Rail; Blackbird: Where the Feeling Deserts Us, Mercy Songs; BOAAT: Northtown Choir; Boxcar Poetry Review: Bellingham Fair; Button: Cry of the Loon; Drunken Boat: Mutants; Forklift Ohio: After Havre, Seven-Day Fast; Linebreak: Depression; The Lumberyard: The Fog and the Sound;Miracle Monocle: Oaks; The Missouri Review: Holes in the Mountain, Sunshine Liquidators, Jesse James Days, Bolinas, The Boys Head; Narrative Magazine: King, Fly Fishing, Sleep, Minnesota Roads; New England Review: Rail; The Paris American: Steampipe; Phantom: The Cloudmakers Bag; Ploughshares: Once in the Rodin Garden; PNR (British): Thresher; The Southern Review: Pike; Third Coast: Crystal Meth; 32 Poems: The Cloudmakers Key; TriQuarterly: Dundas. After Havre was featured in the documentary film Riding the Highline. American Freight is for Danny, Scout, Ant B, Travis, Maya, Brent and Brent, and all the strangers who offered me friendship and grace while I was traveling. Thank you to the institutions that provided financial support during the completion of this book: the MacDowell Colony, the University of Wisconsin-Madisons Creative Writing Program, The Missouri Review, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fund, the Breadloaf Writers Conference, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and Stanford Universitys Wallace Stegner Fellowship Program. Special thanks to Eavan Boland, Ken Fields, W. S.

Di Piero, Nick Flynn, Campbell McGrath, Dorianne Laux, Tobias Wolff, Adam Johnson, Maurice Manning, Andrew Hudgins, Tom Sleigh, Ron Wallace, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Amaud Johnson, Amy Quan Barry, Michael Dennis Browne, J. J. Murphy, and Lorrie Moore for your generous mentorship and support. Many thanks to Peter Conners, Robert Bly, Speer Morgan, Jamaal May, Laura Kasischke, Adam Latham, George David Clark, Ron Martin-Dent, Sandy Knight, Aaron Barrell, Gregory Donovan, Tarfia Faizullah, Matt Hart, Natalie Diaz, Rick Barot, Patty Paine, Tom Jenks, Carol Edgarian, and everyone at BOA Editions for your encouragement and anagogical vision. My deepest love and gratitude to Catherine Pond, Josh Kalscheur, Austin Smith, Christopher Kempf, Gayle Walsworth, Solmaz Sharif, Mario Chard, Laura Romeyn, Edgar Kunz, Cate Lycurgus, Noah Warren, Hugh Martin, Brandon Courtney, Malachi Black, William Brewer, Jacques Rancourt, Nancy Reddy, Louisa Diadato, Shanley Jacobs, Keith Leonard, Kristiana Kahakauwila, Ross Gay, Keith Ekiss, Michael McGriff, Tony Marra, Miriam Bird Greenberg, Greg Wrenn, Jessica Langan-Peck, Jack Schiff, Marymorgan Vegdahl-Crowell, Seth Thomas, Nathan Barnard, Noah Greene, the Bergman family, the Erickson family, and Holden Village. This book is dedicated to my parents, Morris Wee and Kristine Carlson, and my dear brothers, Anders and Olaf.

I couldnt have written these words without you. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kai Carlson-Wee was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received his BA from the University of Minnesota and his MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, Best New Poets,TriQuarterly, Gulf Coast, and The Missouri Review, which awarded him the 2013 Editors Prize. His photography has been featured in Narrative Magazine and his poetry film, Riding the Highline, has screened at film festivals across the country. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, he lives in San Francisco and is a lecturer at Stanford University.

BOA EDITIONS, LTD. THE A. POULIN, JR. NEW POETS OF AMERICA SERIES No. 1 Cedarhome Poems by Barton Sutter Foreword by W. D.

Snodgrass No. 2 Beast Is a Wolf with Brown Fire Poems by Barry Wallenstein Foreword by M. L. Rosenthal No. 3 Along the Dark Shore Poems by Edward Byrne Foreword by John Ashbery No. 5 Eggs in the Lake Poems by Daniela Gioseffi Foreword by John Logan No. 6 Moving the House Poems by Ingrid Wendt Foreword by William Stafford No. 7 Whomp and Moonshiver Poems by Thomas Whitbread Foreword by Richard Wilbur No. 8 Where We Live Poems by Peter Makuck Foreword by Louis Simpson No. 9 Rose Poems by Li-Young Lee Foreword by Gerald Stern No. 10 Genesis Poems by Emanuel di Pasquale Foreword by X. J. J.

Kennedy No. 11 Borders Poems by Mary Crow Foreword by David Ignatow No. 12 Awake Poems by Dorianne Laux Foreword by Philip Levine No. 13 Hurricane Walk Poems by Diann Blakely Shoaf Foreword by William Matthews No. 14 The Philosophers Club Poems by Kim Addonizio Foreword by Gerald Stern No. K. K.

Williams No. 16 Bruise Theory Poems by Natalie Kenvin Foreword by Carolyn Forch No. 17 Shattering Air Poems by David Biespiel Foreword by Stanley Plumly No. 18 The Hour Between Dog and Wolf Poems by Laure-Anne Bosselaar Foreword by Charles Simic No. 19 News of Home Poems by Debra Kang Dean Foreword by Colette Inez No. 21 The Daughters of Discordia Poems by Suzanne Owens Foreword by Denise Duhamel No. 22 Rare Earths Poems by Deena Linett Foreword by Molly Peacock No. 23 An Unkindness of Ravens Poems by Meg Kearney Foreword by Donald Hall No. 24 Hunting Down the Monk Poems by Adrie Kusserow Foreword by Karen Swenson No. 25 Big Back Yard Poems by Michael Teig Foreword by Stephen Dobyns No. 26 Elegy with a Glass of Whiskey Poems by Crystal Bacon Foreword by Stephen Dunn No. 27 The Eclipses Poems by David Woo Selected by Michael S. 27 The Eclipses Poems by David Woo Selected by Michael S.

Harper No. 28 Falling to Earth Poems by Tom Hansen Foreword by Molly Peacock No. 29 Even the Hollow My Body Made IsGone Poems by Janice N. Harrington Foreword by Elizabeth Spires No. 30 The Boatloads Poems by Dan Albergotti Foreword by Edward Hirsch No. 32 Beautiful in the Mouth Poems by Keetje Kuipers Foreword by Thomas Lux No. 33 Walking the Dogs Shadow Poems by Deborah Brown Foreword by Tony Hoagland No. 34 Litany for the City Poems by Ryan Teitman Foreword by Jane Hirshfield No. 35 The Stick Soldiers Poems by Hugh Martin Foreword by Cornelius Eady No. 36 Revising the Storm Poems by Geffrey Davis Foreword by Dorianne Laux No. 37 Shame | Shame Poems by Devin Becker Foreword by David St. John No. 38 Trouble the Water Poems by Derrick Austin Foreword by Mary Szybist No. 39 When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List ofFurther Possibilities Poems by Chen Chen Foreword by Jericho Brown No. 40 Cenzontle Poems by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo Foreword by Brenda Shaughnessy No. 41 Rail Poems by Kai Carlson-Wee Foreword by Nick Flynn