A collection of vital, melancholic, elemental, and vibrantly contemporary poems.
In the beginning, was the light, or was it the Lumières? In Ulrike Almut Sandig’s latest volume of poetry, it is only a leap from the creation of the world to the symphony of the Berlin metropolis. And there is a question holding out off the coast of Lampedusa: Can shining sheep be used as night storage for the dark hours, when we are overwhelmed with fears of God, of a gym teacher with a whistle, of mothers with eyes as black as coal? In devastating sequences, Sandig charts the reality of an abused child, victims of contemporary war, or a fourteenth-century Madonna. Full of humor, musicality, lightness, and rage, Shining Sheep is not just visual poetry—it has loops in your ear and filmic explosions of imagery for all your senses.
In the beginning, was the light, or was it the Lumières? In Ulrike Almut Sandig’s latest volume of poetry, it is only a leap from the creation of the world to the symphony of the Berlin metropolis. And there is a question holding out off the coast of Lampedusa: Can shining sheep be used as night storage for the dark hours, when we are overwhelmed with fears of God, of a gym teacher with a whistle, of mothers with eyes as black as coal? In devastating sequences, Sandig charts the reality of an abused child, victims of contemporary war, or a fourteenth-century Madonna. Full of humor, musicality, lightness, and rage, Shining Sheep is not just visual poetry—it has loops in your ear and filmic explosions of imagery for all your senses.
Table of Contents
Zippelonika
O awake
Z how to wake her loser mama
I the problem is
P grown
P on good days Zippelonika is a bouncy castle / with crenelations, a slide and flat blue insides
E because
L Zippelonika
O Pixi
N Chorale
I why is everything starting to sway
K Drinking Song
A Question
Seven Marian Songs with Hyena
VII Kapuzinerberg
VI of Hélène
V song for two voices
IV over your little face
III mauls
II look here!
I Echo
The Silent Songs of the Walls
I
II
III
Fire Earth Water Leap
I Fire
II Earth
III Water
IV Leap
Rhapsody of Losing
Shining Bodies
Murmurations. Little Choral Piece with Braces
Guidance on Laughing at a Distance
Climate change is here, now. But we are also here, now. And if we don’t act, who will?
From the Water
Of Losing
The Tongue is a Needle. And I am True North. Telling lies.
Open Arms
Internal Report of a Russian spy-software on the up to the minute state of its unsuspecting informant, Codename: Cents (leaked)
sa?nd ’b?diz
we were here
bittersweet ode-zine 1 (N)
bittersweet ode-zine 2 (J)
Friedrich Hölderlin, reworked
Daniel dreams
Lamentations in VI Rounds
Round I
Round II
Round III
Round IV
Round V
Round VI
The Songs of the Radio Tower
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
?
Closing Credits
Shining Thanks
Translator’s Acknowledgements
O awake
Z how to wake her loser mama
I the problem is
P grown
P on good days Zippelonika is a bouncy castle / with crenelations, a slide and flat blue insides
E because
L Zippelonika
O Pixi
N Chorale
I why is everything starting to sway
K Drinking Song
A Question
Seven Marian Songs with Hyena
VII Kapuzinerberg
VI of Hélène
V song for two voices
IV over your little face
III mauls
II look here!
I Echo
The Silent Songs of the Walls
I
II
III
Fire Earth Water Leap
I Fire
II Earth
III Water
IV Leap
Rhapsody of Losing
Shining Bodies
Murmurations. Little Choral Piece with Braces
Guidance on Laughing at a Distance
Climate change is here, now. But we are also here, now. And if we don’t act, who will?
From the Water
Of Losing
The Tongue is a Needle. And I am True North. Telling lies.
Open Arms
Internal Report of a Russian spy-software on the up to the minute state of its unsuspecting informant, Codename: Cents (leaked)
sa?nd ’b?diz
we were here
bittersweet ode-zine 1 (N)
bittersweet ode-zine 2 (J)
Friedrich Hölderlin, reworked
Daniel dreams
Lamentations in VI Rounds
Round I
Round II
Round III
Round IV
Round V
Round VI
The Songs of the Radio Tower
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
?
Closing Credits
Shining Thanks
Translator’s Acknowledgements