Solve for Desire. Caitlin Bailey

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      © 2017, Text by Caitlin Bailey

      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 2017 by Milkweed Editions

      Printed in the United States of America

      Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker

      Cover illustration by Andrea Amadio, from the Codice Roccobonella, ca. 1445

      Author photo by Lucas Botz

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       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 Wells Fargo. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit milkweed.org.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Bailey, Caitlin, author.

      Title: Solve for desire : poems / Caitlin Bailey.

      Description: First edition. | Minneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, [2017] |

      Identifiers: LCCN 2017028617 (print) | LCCN 2017032354 (ebook) | ISBN 9781571319753 (ebook) | ISBN 9781571314994 (softcover : acid-free paper)

      Classification: LCC PS3602.A533 (ebook) | LCC PS3602.A533 A6 2017 (print) | DDC 811/.6--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028617

      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. Solve for Desire was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Thomson-Shore.

      For Grete

      Contents

        Title Page

        Copyright

        Dedication

       I.

      1  Whoever Drinks from Me

      2  Lost Letter

      3  Pigeons

      4  Church, Hipbone

      5  This Is the House

      6  Poem about Desire

      7  The Heart Is to a Pleasant Thing

      8  Detonate

      9  Incantare

      10  Poem about Desire

      11  Right Light

      12  The Field That Resists Naming

      13  The Pond

      14  All You Can Do Is Imagine the Leaving

      15  False Narrative

      16  How We Prepared for War

      17  In the Company of a Blue Apparatus

       II.

      1  This Is a Life

      2  Definition Of

      3  The Trick Is Small

      4  Hull

      5  Absence Anatomy

      6  Grete Writes to Georg at War

      7  Where We Are Both Well

      8  Nocturne

      9  On Never Marrying Him

      10  Little Pieces

      11  Dream II

      12  Poem about Desire

      13  Some Elaborate