Stranger. Adam Clay

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      Also by Adam Clay

       The Wash

       A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World

      © 2016, Text by Adam Clay

      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.

      [phone]

       www.milkweed.org

      Published 2016 by Milkweed Editions

      Printed in the United States of America

      Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker

      Cover illustration by Mary Austin Speaker

      Author photo by Jacques-Alain Finkeltroc

      16 17 18 19 20 5 4 3 2 1

       First Edition

      Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Jerome Foundation; the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Also, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit www.milkweed.org.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Clay, Adam, 1978-

      [Poems. Selections]

      Stranger : poems / Adam Clay. -- First edition.

      pages ; cm

      ISBN 978-1-57131-463-5 (acid-free paper) -- ISBN 978-1-57131-909-8 (ebook)

      I. Title.

      PS3603.L385A6 2016

      811’.6--dc23

      2015017007

      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. Stranger was printed on acid-free 30% postconsumer-waste paper by Versa Press.

      STRANGER

        Title Page

        Copyright

       ONE

      1  To Take Note of Where We Are

      2  Northern Lights

      3  Disruption Without Shrapnel

      4  Along the Edge of a Season

      5  Don’t Look Back

      6  Exhibit A

      7  Home as a Haunt

      8  The End Time Before the End Time

      9  Even a Straight Line Must Curve to Shape the World

      10  Upper Peninsula

      11  Sometimes I Miss Your Life More Than I Miss You

      12  Tell Me Now, Again, Who I Am

       TWO

      1  Start This Record Over

      2  Sounds of an Emptying House

      3  Not Quite Right

      4  Compost Hymn

      5  Occupied Elsewhere

      6  Our Eternal Sounds

      7  East Jackson Drive

      8  The Cradle of All There Is

      9  Elegant Comparison

      10  Our Daily Becoming

       THREE

      1  This Is a Frame

       FOUR

      1  Abstract Evolution

      2  For the First Fog of October

      3  Glare

      4  Season

      5  Honest Attempt

      6  First Winter in Kentucky

      7  Nightcap

      8  The Hardness and the Brightness

      9  Everyone Trying to Start / Something New

      10  On Silence and Sleep

      11  This Pastoral Way of Living

      12  Forecast and Its Failure

      13  Biographical Patterns

      14  What I Remember

        Notes

        Acknowledgments

        About the Author

      In the blue display of the cool cathode ray

      I dream a highway back to you

      GILLIAN WELCH

ONE