© 2015, Text by Joni Tevis
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.
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Published 2015 by Milkweed Editions
Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker
Cover photo by Alberto Masnovo
Author photo by David Bernardy
15 16 17 18 19 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tevis, Joni.
[Essays. Selections]
The world is on fire: scrap, treasure, and songs of apocalypse / Joni Tevis. -- First edition.
pages; cm
ISBN 978-1-57131-898-5 (ebook)
I. Title.
PS3620.E95A6 2015
814'.6--dc23
2014038727
Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. The World Is On Fire was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Friesens Corporation.
For David
And for all this, nature is never spent...
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things...
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844–89)
“GOD’S GRANDEUR”
CONTENTS
Buddy Holly, View-Master, and the A-Bomb
Rock City and Other Fairy Tales of the Atomic Age
Backstage with John the Beloved Disciple
Something Like the Fire
The Measure of My Days
(Buddy Holly Reprise)
ACT TWO
The Lay of the Land
Warp and Weft
Brain Sweat and Blueprints
Coathook in an Empty Schoolhouse
The Scissorman
We All Drink from that Fiery Spring
(Ode to Heavy Industry)
Hammer Price
(Song of the Auctioneer)
Pacing the Siege Floor
INTERMISSION
Girl Power:
Ode to the Demolition Derby
ACT THREE
What the Body Knows
The World Is On Fire:
The Cave of the Apocalypse
Touch the Bones
Somebody to Love
FINALE
Some Memory of Daylight
Notes and Acknowledgments
If a thing is iron, then what? It rusts, you see. That’s fire, too. The world is on fire. Start your pieces in the paper that way. Just say in big letters, “The World Is On Fire.”
That will make ’em look up.
SHERWOOD
