Opium and Ambergris
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A01=Colin Dekeersgieter
A01=Marilyn Chin
Addiction
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Colin Dekeersgieter
Author_Marilyn Chin
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Award Winner
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DC
Category=DCC
Category=DCF
COP=United States
Death
Delivery_Pre-order
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eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
Family
first book
Grief
Language_English
loss
Love
Lyric Poetry
Mental Illness
PA=Not yet available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Forthcoming
softlaunch
Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize
Wick Poetry Center
Product details
- ISBN 9781606354834
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 17 Sep 2024
- Publisher: Kent State University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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Winner of the 2023 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize
Opium and Ambergris is the haunting debut collection by poet Colin Dekeersgieter, whose lyric poems scrutinize a family's history with addiction, death, and mental illness.
Reeling from the loss of his brother to a heroin overdose, Dekeersgieter grieves while doing his best to keep his suicidal mother alive and raise his family. As a result, these poems shift between historical retellings and urgent examinations of love. In the title poem, "opium" is associated with death and "ambergris"—a substance formed in sperm whales' digestive tracts and valued by many cultures for over one thousand years—is associated with love. As family history, death, trauma, and duty become entwined with the acts of living, suffering, growing, and writing, these metaphorical categories become essentially interchangeable. Opium comes from the beautiful poppy; ambergris is an ingredient still used in high-end perfumes to help the fragrance last longer, yet it is extracted from dead whales. Thus, "opium" and "ambergris" come to represent the possible coexistence of love and loss.
With many poems written in emergency departments, behavioral wards, and intensive care units, Dekeersgieter does not just honestly chronicle a family crisis but seeks to survive through poetry.
Opium and Ambergris is the haunting debut collection by poet Colin Dekeersgieter, whose lyric poems scrutinize a family's history with addiction, death, and mental illness.
Reeling from the loss of his brother to a heroin overdose, Dekeersgieter grieves while doing his best to keep his suicidal mother alive and raise his family. As a result, these poems shift between historical retellings and urgent examinations of love. In the title poem, "opium" is associated with death and "ambergris"—a substance formed in sperm whales' digestive tracts and valued by many cultures for over one thousand years—is associated with love. As family history, death, trauma, and duty become entwined with the acts of living, suffering, growing, and writing, these metaphorical categories become essentially interchangeable. Opium comes from the beautiful poppy; ambergris is an ingredient still used in high-end perfumes to help the fragrance last longer, yet it is extracted from dead whales. Thus, "opium" and "ambergris" come to represent the possible coexistence of love and loss.
With many poems written in emergency departments, behavioral wards, and intensive care units, Dekeersgieter does not just honestly chronicle a family crisis but seeks to survive through poetry.
Colin Dekeersgieter is a poet, editor, and teacher. His work has appeared in Brink, the Greensboro Review, North American Review, and elsewhere. He received an MFA from New York University and is a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
