poetry chapbook, gong 2004
Boxer Rebellion

gong, 2004

"Wholly rooted in the human side of things, Sarah Mangold’s Boxer Rebellion (gong, 2004) takes a documentary approach to the poetic sequence, mining a source text, The Reminiscence of Mrs. Roy C. Smith, Jr., published by the U.S. Naval Institute, to splice together an account of, and argument for, the individual voice our larger notion of history so often effaces." Noah Eli Gordon, Jacket


from Boxer Rebellion:

1900 1910s 1912 1913 1919 1920-
1940s 1920s 1922 1925 1930s
1935 1937

a abroad academy activities after
allowed alone among ancestors and
and Annapolis Annapolis Maryland
as as at away back

battleship be because bedroom born
Boxer Rebellion buff by by Captain
Phillip R. Alger Captain Roy C.
Smith III USNR Charleston childhood
children China

Chinamen climate comic command
Commander Smith commanding
commanding courts cousin date
dates death December

demerits description dinner dinner
dinners drinking during duty duty
duty early early early 1900s early
1930s educated education elaborate
experiences

family family’s Far East father February
1912 flu epidemic food for formal
friends friends from future Georgia
Georgia

USS (BB-15) get guest habits Hawaii
he health healthreasons health her
her her his his home housing husband
ill in in in initially institute is Jr
June 1925 to

February 1928 Kenneth Whitings
lack late late 1920s leave Lieutenant
Commander Smith liquor Louisa
Smith Barnard love Luckenbach map
marries marries Mary

Alger Mary Alger Mary Smith Staley
mathematics meals meets Memphis
merchant ship mid-1920s mid-1930s
midshipmen military benefits and
privileges moves Mrs. Smith’s Mrs.
Smith’s

music naval naval academy naval
war college navigator navy new
Newport Newport Rhode Island NOA
Noa USS (DD- 343) Noa not not of
of officer officers Oglala Pacific area
Panama Panama

parents parents participation parties
parties physical fitness picked powder
monkey predicts private professor
prohibition proximity public schools RADM

Wilson ranking receives recollections
rejected relative resigns retirement
Rizal running rushes

scares Mrs. Smith by sneaking on
train to Baltimore as young child
as child takes bones as souvenir
from Philippine burial cave education
retirement Roy Roy Smith III serves
as a powder monkey at Nanking in 1927

schooling sea secretary-treasurer sent
served service Shanghai she sister
Smith Smith Commander Roy C. Jr.
(USN (Ret) (USNA 1910) Smith Mary
Taylor Alger Smith Montgomery
M social social

South Carolina states station stationed
stays submarines superintendent
support taken takes tells that the
the the the to to

to her brother’s chagrin dates his
company commander in the early
1930s breaks her arm as a child in
Shanghai in the mid-1920s
meets third husband in Newport after
WWII appearance causes stir in
Panama in the early 30s education
torpedo town

translates typhoon U.S. uncomfortable
undesirable unhappy up USN (USNA
1880) USS King was when while wife
with wives word World War I World
War I World War II