White Lily

Why are my problems / always the worst? // And why / because I wrote that / do you think I dont believe it? White Lily is John Emil Vincents love note to Louise Glck and Laurie Anderson, two artists inspired and bedevilled by white lilies. Under their spell the poet dives into parable, fable, received wisdom, compact discs, and ruined utopias like a gleeful truant child. Ever present: the white lily, its meanings, messages, and seductive scent. The collection begins with a meditation on Andersons song White Lily and its treatment of Rainer Werner Fassbinders fourteen-hour film Berlin Alexanderplatz. It goes on to ponder whether, if we take them in earnest, our mistakes come to serve as the surest sign of seriousness. Throughout, Vincents poems trouble whats exact and exacting, always with the white lily as companion, a promise of rebirth delivered in funeral tones.