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New Books - 03/05
Refusing Heaven, by Jack Gilbert ($25 Knopf) It's been a long wait for a
new collection by Jack Gilbert -- over ten years -- for many, time spent
rereading The Great Fires, his only other book in print. No one but he
could have written this book; it is stained with his life and his voice. He
has dedicated the volume to his two great loves, Linda Gregg and Michiko
Nogami, and they and other women are strong presences in the poems. His
relationships have been of deep intensity and are rendered here with honesty
and gentleness, even when they were troubled -- "How can they say the
marriage failed?. / I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell, / but just
coming to the end of his triumph." Loss and loneliness color many of the
brief yet filled lyrics (only three poems stretch to a second page), but
their overwhelming tone is one of gratitude, even delight, to have been, and
to be, on the earth. He is, as the book's title declares, refusing heaven.
"We must have / the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless /
furnace of the world.. / We must admit there will be music despite
everything."
The Poetry Home Repair Manual, by Ted Kooser ($19.95 U. of Nebraska)
In a straightforward, simple, but not simplistic manner, the current Poet
Laureate of the United States offers his thoughts and suggestions on the
writing of poetry. "Poetry is communication," he writes, "and every word I'
ve written here subscribes to that belief." Agree or disagree with him,
readers of Mr. Kooser's guide (even those already schooled in the ways of
verse writing) will find themselves challenged to think about what it means
for a poem to "work."
Overlord, by Jorie Graham ($22.95 Ecco) A meditation on temporality, framed
by the current war (Iraq/terror) and World War II. During a stay in the
Normandy region of France Ms. Graham considers the bureaucratic history
("Have you found your fallen person says the program / when I go back to the
home page") and the ghosts ("You from under the apple orchard, / and still
not found in my field, / . you, meaninglessness, / speak out -- what do you
hate -- what do you hate --").
This Connection of Everyone with Lungs, by Juliana Spahr ($16.95 U. of
California) These poems, written out of the horror of 9/11 and the wars that
followed, are an unusual combination of a lyrical, almost liturgical,
address of love and longed-for hope to "yous" and lists of the sorrowful and
ridiculous facts of our militarized, connected world. "When I reach for your
waists, I reach for bombers, cargo, / helicopters, and special operations."
The Wrong End of the Rainbow, by Charles Wright ($9.95 Sarabande Chapbook
Series) Published in the year Mr. Wright turns 70, this collection of 22
poems is meditative, reflective, and quietly warm. "A god-fearing agnostic,
/ I tend to look in the corners of things."
Elegy on Toy Piano, by Dean Young ($12.95 U. Pittsburgh) The poems in this
collection are generous and chatty, offering up a wild imagination in
commonplace language. Mr. Young blends surrealism with the "I do this, I do
that" style of poetry to fine effect. On the topic of surrealism, he writes
"All nonmigrating butterflies are surrealists, ditto third graders." He
keeps good company. Here's a poem from the book --
Facet
For weeks, I've gone unbroken
but not unpunished by the quiet
of zero degrees which is worse than
the quiet of twenty when at least
you can't hear the stars wheeze.
I can't make it any clearer than that
and stay drunk. A crash course
in the afterlife where I still walk
beside you but unable to touch your hair.
It worries me I could no longer care
or only in a detached way like a monk
for a scorpion.
-- Dean Young
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