29:4 Spring 1978

AI

Ice

“Ice” was published with another poem by Ai, “Sleep like a Hammer,” in the Spring 1978 issue.  Ai tells us, “My great great grandmother was an Oklahoma Choctaw and I was trying to imagine a fictional incident in her life, as well as just trying however obliquely to get in touch with my roots, when I wrote the poem, ‘Ice.’ I was also fulfilling one of my self-imposed promises to the Guggenheim Foundation that I would use some of my fellowship to research my family history and to use that research to write about my family.  ‘Ice’ was published in my book, Killing Floor, in 1979; Killing Floor was the Lamont Poetry Selection for 1978.  The poem shared first place for Pushcart Prize IV (1981).”

[DN, 1996]

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