Connie Deanovich
Poet Connie Deanovich grew up in Chicago, and earned a BA at Columbia College Chicago and an MA at DePaul University. Deanovich’s poetry collections include Watusi Titanic (1996) and Zombie Jet (2000). Her poetry has been featured in several anthologies, including Walk on the Wild Side: Urban American Poetry Since 1975 (1994) and American Poetry: The Next Generation (2000). Deanovich’s honors include a GE Award for Younger Writers and a Project for Innovative Poetry (PIP) Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Poetry in English. Deanovich lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Watusi TitanicPoemsFrom"Requirements for a Saint"
I’ll make you a saint
from an unblemished code book
that must be read
in a German restaurant
where beer is served in glasses
wrapped in brown leather
when the cuckoo strikes twelve
this will be the moment
of ascension
Watusi Titanic :Poems -
Watusi TitanicPoemsFrom"Nicola Tesla"
An unpredictable man
grew from a boy who
wanted to fly in a machine
he kept in his mind
and powered with June bugs
Pearl earrings made him vomit
germs infected his moustache
only 18 napkins at the side of his
plate would bring him to eat
To friends, he was as predictable as the mathematics
that sailed through his mind like feathers
Watusi Titanic :Poems -
Watusi TitanicPoemsFrom"Blue Cuisine"
blue cuisine
is served
in the municipal swimming pool
thin glass noodles
in thick blue sauce
draw
into the water treader’s
mouths
followed by lush swallows
of grape juice
sloshing in glass goblets
big as Biblical beehives
Watusi Titanic :Poems
“Connie Deanovich is the pure wild thing of American poetry and towers above her extraordinary timid generation like Paul Bunyan over Bemidji. She takes hold of the language and gives it a big, joyous shake, burns rubber, and leaves the rest of the boys and girls gasping in her parti-colored exhaust.” —August Kleinzahler [on Watusi Titanic]
“The secret is out: this book is a great find.” —Elaine Equi [on Watusi Titanic]
“Few poets are as inventive as Connie Deanovich. Her statement, ‘imagination must have dirt,’ is a profound reminder that poetry has its sources beneath our feet.” —Paul Hoover [on Watusi Titanic]
