{"product_id":"the-emperor-of-water-clocks-poems-9780374536572b","title":"The Emperor of Water Clocks: Poems","description":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe wildly enchanting new collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"If I am not Ulysses, I am \/ his dear, ruthless half brother.\" So announces Yusef Komunyakaa early in his lush new collection, \u003ci\u003eThe Emperor of Water Clocks\u003c\/i\u003e. And Ulysses (or his half brother) is but one of the characters Komunyakaa conjures over the course of this densely lyrical book. Here his speaker observes a doomed court jester; here another recalls Napoleon as the emperor \"tells the doctor to cut out his heart \/ \u0026amp; send it to the empress, Marie-Louise\"; and here he is just a man, reflecting on why he'd \"rather die a poet \/ than a warrior.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough these mutations and migrations and permutations and peregrinations, there are constants: Komunyakaa's jazz-inflected rhythms, his effortlessly surreal images, his celebration of natural beauty and of love. There is also his insistent inquiry into the structures and struggles of power: not only, say, of king against jester but of man against his own desire, and of the present against the pernicious influence of the past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnother brilliant collection from the man David Wojahn has called one of our \"most significant and individual voices,\" \u003ci\u003eThe Emperor of Water Clocks \u003c\/i\u003edelights, challenges, and satisfies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar Straus Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42817603797072,"sku":"9780374536572B","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780374536572-l.jpg?v=1785865597","url":"https:\/\/bookoutlet.com\/products\/the-emperor-of-water-clocks-poems-9780374536572b","provider":"Book Outlet","version":"1.0","type":"link"}