Arning, Bonnie, authorThe Center for Literary Publishing, Colorado State University, publisher2017-03-012017-03-012017http://hdl.handle.net/10217/179935From the moment of a marriage's heated inception to its period of luminous crowding and onward into distance and darkness, Bonnie Arning's Escape Velocity asks if it's possible to exist outside the only universe we've ever known. In modes both lyric and narrative, we are given a peephole into the height and decline of a marriage that begins beneath the moving lights of Las Vegas, Nevada, and traverses the devastating terrain of gambling problems, miscarriage, infidelity, and violence. Arning gives voice to divergent aspects of love and violence through her use of math problems, erasures, dictionary entries, structured stanzas, and sprawling free verse. This multiplicity of forms comes together to explore everything from pop-culture references of domestic violence to cultural notions of victims and victimhood. However dark, collectively these poems tell a love story--an acceptance of our capability to love those who hurt us, but also the love-of-self required to slowly and steadily reach the velocity to be everleaving." In the tradition of Eavan Boland and Louise Glück, Arning wrestles down and examines the terrible without flinching. We journey with her, engrossed by each difficult truth: a precipice near which we are both terrified to stand and transfixed by its unnerving insistence on beauty.--Provided by publisher.I. Marriage Ephemera -- The night Saddam Hussein died we were drunk -- Las Vegas Strip, 4 a.m. -- On all the nights he leaves me, a spider crawls into my head -- Escape Fallacy -- Stand Burn -- Tight Spaces -- Clark County Reveal -- II. Lost Body -- While paying for lunch I found his wedding ring -- The Fish -- First Summer -- Knit Tight -- The Science of Sight -- Model Victim -- Calculus of Violent Behavior -- Taking the Moon, Burning It Down -- III. Siren Song -- Bleeding, Love -- Victim Mentality -- Five days after the second affair -- Night Volta -- It happened on Scissors Street, it happened in spring -- Entering the Mach Band -- Distress Signal -- Keep the restraining order with you at all times -- IV. Lay -- A physicist tells me -- Olfaction -- I wrote my estranged husband a love letter -- Family Portrait -- Red Giant Woman -- On the Stellar Evolution of Black Dwarfs -- Fear of Inheritance -- Black Acres.born digitalbooksengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.All rights reserved. User is responsible for compliance. Please contact The Center for Literary Publishing, attn: Permissions at creview@colostate.edu for use information.Marriage -- PoetryTextAccess is limited to the Adams State University, Colorado State University, Colorado State University Pueblo, Community College of Denver, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University Denver, Regis University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver, University of Northern Colorado, University of Wyoming, Utah State University and Western Colorado University communities only.