Poet Dean Young has dealt with impermanence( )a lot in his career, but it's a particularly strong theme in Young's latest collection, Fall Higher.The new collection was published in April, just days after the poet received a life-saving heart transplant after about a decade of living with a weakening heart condition. Young, whose work is often frank and rich with twisted humor, tells NPR's Renee Montaigne that as he recovers from operation, he's also slowly returning to his everyday writing habits. "I'm getting back to it," Young says."Not with the sort of concentration and sort of flame that I look forward to in the future, but I am blackening some pages." And on those blackened pages you'll find poems like " How Grasp Green," which carries themes of springtime and rebirth.It's one of the first poems Young has written since his transplant. It's easy to spot clues to Young's awful health situation in the lines of his poetry. Fall Higher's "Vintage" opens with, "Because I will die soon, I fall asleep, during the lecture on the ongoing emergency." And the poem "-The Rhythms Pronounce Themselves Then Vanish--published in The /Vew Barker in February --opens with the CT scan that revealed Young's heart condition. Young says "Rhythms" was written about the beginning of his illness. "I had been having a lot of physical pain so that I could hardly walk a block.I got sent to a gastroenterologist and he did a series of tests, and then the tests came back to me and it was all heart related," he says." And the outlook wasn't good. Hearts tend to come up a lot in poetry, and that's especially true of Young's work, which has clearly been influenced by the troubles of his own heart, "A lot of times, it's not just a metaphor ," Young says."For me, it's an actual concern because I've been living with this disease for over 10 years.My father died of heart problems when he was 49, so it's been a sort of shadowy concern for me my whole life. But Young's poems also deal with more abstract matters of the heart.He wrote Fall... The poetry collection Fall Higher _ . A) was published in February B) refers darkness as its main theme C) is Young's latest collection of poetry D) was written after Young's heart transplant
C
For a while, I wrote a "Tuesday tip" on my blog Lyonsdenmom.com. It was about easy week-night dinners, organizing parties or perhaps finding time out for friends. About a year ago, I ran out of tips. The truth? As a busy working mom with five busy kids, I probably do have a few tips to share. But honestly, the bar is set pretty low---on a recent day when I was walking our dog, a stranger who knew I had five kids said, "Wow! You have a dog, too?! And it even looks like you showered today!" Yes, it's true, I shower. Not every day, but most days. See, I'm telling the truth. Honestly, in this cold winter, I'm probably taking a shower more to warm up than to clean up. Other funny truths? I'm tired. In fact, for the past year, I've been too tired to type up any update on our life here in Lyons Den. It's hard to arrange a career with all these kids. Although folks just believe that it must be so much easier now since all the kids are in school, I'm here to tell you, it's not. It's really not. When I get home from work, I'm often tearfully greeted by five kids and five homework folders filled with math facts, invitations, notices and artwork. All those happy smiling faces I share on Facebook are real. We are a happy family---thank God for that! But we're not always smiling, and even in those rare best times when I can get all five kids looking at the camera, the odds would be that one of them isn't wearing underwear, one is pinching someone behind the scenes and one is just perfectly pronouncing "Damn!" So, less perfectly-posed pictures, but more telling the truth. Even if only on Tuesday. Which of the following is true about the author? A) She can't get along well with her neighbors. B) She's living a happy life with her family C) She likes to have a shower every day. D) She has already closed her blog now.
B
Q: The Lies of George W. Bush By David Corn Imprint: Three Rivers Press Trade Paperback: 368 pages Pub Date: May 2004 Price: US $ 12.195 ISBN: 1400050677 All American presidents have lied, but George W. Bush has seriously abused the truth, this book tells us. It's full of sharp accusations against the prefix = st1 /USpresident and his inner circle. David Corn, theWashingtoneditor of "The Nation", details the many times the Bush administration knowingly and intentionally misled the American public to advance its own interests and plan. These include: Unclear reports and presenting misleading arguments to gain public support for the war againstIraq. Misleading explanations, instead of telling the full truth, about the 9/11 attacks. The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty By Kitty Kelley Imprint: Doubleday Hardcover: 736 Pages Pub Date: September 2004 Price: US $ 29.95 ISBN: 0385503245 They have got huge financial power and controlled world politics for more than half a century. They have been elected as governors, congressmen, senators and presidents. They have shaped America's past and, with the country at war under the leadership of their No. 1 son, they are, shapingAmerica's future. As the Bush family has risen to power, they have been masters of their own public image. They act and operate under the protection of privacy their money and status has afforded them. America's Secret War By George Friedman Imprint: Doubleday Hardcover: 368 pages Pub Date: October 2004 Price: US $ 25.95 ISBN: 0385512457 Friedman tells the surprising truth behind America's foreign policy and war in Afghanuistan andIraq. In "America's Secret War", George Friedman identifies the Untied States' most dangerous enemies. He also examines presidential strategies of the last quarter century, and reveals the real reasons behind the attack of 9/11 and the Bush administration's reasons for the war inIraq. He describes in detail America's secret and open efforts in the global war against terrorism. In which book is Bush criticized by the author? A) America's Secret War. B) The Lies of George W. Bush. C) The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. D) The Nation.
A: B