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New Books - 09/05
Jane Kenyon died 10 years ago this spring, and that unfortunate anniversary
has prompted Graywolf Press to publish two fitting tributes to her grounded
and graceful work. Collected Poems ($26) gathers all her published poetry,
as well as four poems not previously included in books, and her translations
of 20 poems by Anna Akhmatova. It's an impressive, well designed volume that
gives us her sometimes sad, always honest voice in full. Simply Lasting
($17) is a collection of personal and critical essays about Jane Kenyon and
her work by numerous writers, among them Marie Howe, Robert Hass, Lucia
Perillo, Wendell Berry, and her husband, Donald Hall. Also included are an
interview and a few of her letters. It's clear she was a much loved person
and that she has been and will continue to be a much loved poet.
A Wild Perfection: The Selected Letters of James Wright ($40 FSG) is a
generous collection of letters written to other major poets, editors, and
family. Mr. Wright was one of the most accomplished and influential poets of
mid-20th century America. He expressed the alienation at the heart of the
country with a grace equaled by few. His lyrical ability and direct voice
shine in these letters, too. This, from a letter written in Austria in
1953 -- "I long for some of that glorious barbarism, that gratifying
bleakness and loneliness which is so much of America to me." The
over-600-page book also features a detailed chronology of the poet's life
and 46 pages of uncollected poems and drafts.
You & Yours, by Naomi Shihab Nye ($15.50 BOA) Tender in its portrayal of
the quotidian, Ms. Nye's work can also be unabashedly political. In this
volume she writes feelingly about childhood, neighbors, airports, and also
the war in Iraq and the struggles of the Palestinian people, whose ancestry
she shares. Regardless of their topic, her poems and short prose pieces are
rooted in plain language and clear imagery -- "I live in teaspoon, bucket,
river, pain, / turtle sunning on a brick." She has also written A Maze Me:
Poems for Girls ($16.99 Greenwillow), an engaging book of poetry ostensibly
for younger readers but in which adults can find pleasure as well. Ms. Nye,
through her own work and the anthologies she has edited, knows how to speak
honestly to children, without condescension.
Dangerous Astronomy, by Sherman Alexie ($25 Limberlost) In a
letterset-printed edition limited to 850 copies, this chapbook of new poems
by Mr. Alexie is both movingly emotional and arresting in its attention to
traditional formal poetic devices. The 18 pages of poetry include a sestina
and poems made primarily of solid, ten syllable lines. Full rhymes come into
use often, too. But of particular note is Mr. Alexie's consideration of the
death of his father in tandem with his own fatherhood. His often lovely
turns of mind produce some powerful images: "Because we are seventy-eight
percent / Water before they die and seventy- / Eight percent father after
the last shouts / Of crash teams who've saved ten thousand fathers / But
could not save the only one.."
Coming in early September! We're delighted to report that the latest from
the amazing Anne Carson will arrive soon. Decreation ($24.95 Knopf) will
be a 272-page collection of poetry, essays, and a libretto for an opera.
Though we don't know exactly what this, her first volume in five years, will
contain, we've seen enough to be eagerly awaiting it. Here's an excerpt --
"Little spongy mysteries of evening begin to nick open. // Time to call
mother. // Let it ring. // Six. // Seven. // Eight -- she // lifts the
receiver, waits. // Down the hollow distances are they fieldmice that
scamper so drily.. // While talking to my mother I neaten things. Spines of
books by the phone. // Paperclips // in a china dish. Fragments of eraser
that dot the desk. She speaks // longingly // of death. I begin tilting all
the paperclips in the other direction."
Ugly Duckling Presse We've received another box of quirky and intriguing
goodies from this group of hard-working folks in Brooklyn, NY. In addition
to "Six by Six," their rubber-band-bound literary magazine featuring six
poets (priced at "three ducks"), UDP also publishes books and chapbooks,
many by Eastern European authors. One of the most compelling and unusual in
this last shipment is Further Adventures of My Nose by John Surowiecki,
with fine illustrations by Terry Rentzepis ($10) -- a simultaneously surreal
and utterly realistic (and ultimately quite moving) telling of the
travels-travails of the author's nose.
Billy Collins Live ($19.95 compact disc; Random House) This 75-minute CD
offers the quintessential Collins performance, captured at a fundraiser for
a New York City public radio station in April 2005. He reads many of his
most popular poems, including the often sought-after "The Lanyard,"
interspersing the poetry with commentary and asides. Also included are the
actor Bill Murray's introduction and a closing question-and-answer period.
An intimate and quality recording, it comes close to approximating the
experience of attending a Billy Collins reading.
Starred Wire by Ange Mlinko ($15 Coffee House Press) Playfulness in
thought and language are complemented by vivid and unusual description in
this National Poetry Series selection. The vocabulary and phrasing of the
poems are contemporary yet archaic, colloquial yet formal, making for a
lively tension. The city, suburbs, woods presented are those we sort of
know, the "I," "you," and "we" kind of recognizable. But all is dressed a
bit differently - or is it undressed? "You wanted to know from henbane, /
but the best we could do was the Dairy Princess of St. Lawrence County," she
writes. And, "The papercut's open, but we leave the library / as if it were
a hotel in pale sun's off-season."
A Tomb for Anatole by Stephane Mallarme; translated by Paul Auster ($16.95
New Directions) Anatole, the son of the renowned 19th century French poet
Mallarm?, died at the age of eight. His grief-stricken father sought to
write a four-part poem in response, leaving behind 202 fragments that were
not published even in France until 1961. Paul Auster's translation, now back
in print after extensive revisions, makes for a heart-breaking and at times
disorienting book that is amazingly contemporary in its fractures and
absences. Clearly composed of notes for a lengthy piece, which the poet
could not bring himself to complete, the volume is struggle and sadness made
manifest -- "true mourning in / the apartment / -- not cemetery -- //
furniture // to find absence / alone -- / in presence / of little clothes."
Quipu, by Arthur Sze ($15 Copper Canyon Press) Gentle in tone though not
always in topic, this is the poetry of a meticulous and thoughtful observer.
The landscapes where Arthur Sze's poems flower, many evocative of the
Southwest, are as fully yet economically rendered as fine calligraphy,
perhaps reflecting his skill in translating Chinese poetry. The title of the
book refers to an Incan method for accounting (and possibly storytelling)
that used knotted strings, and one sees the poet's desire both to knot the
strings of his life and to read those of the world, often revealing and
confronting both deep pleasure and pain -- "Sipping mint tea / on the
longest day of the year, I sense how / the balance of a life sways, and a
petal may tip it."
Stanley Kunitz arrived at his 100th birthday this summer, still exhibiting a
remarkable vigor in mind and body. He is most well known for his poetry, but
his gift for gardening has been widely praised as well. To mark both those
skills, the publisher W.W. Norton has released The Wild Braid: A Poet
Reflects on a Century in the Garden ($23.95), a beautiful volume of
ruminations, poems, and delightful photographs of the poet in his
Provincetown garden. He is no doubt a master cultivator. "The poem has its
own laws about what it can contain and what it needs to exclude," he writes.
"You have to trust the poem. The garden, too, will tell you, usually rather
quickly, if you've planted something in the wrong place."
Now in paperback: Three collections have arrived in their softcover
editions -- Susan Stewart's Columbarium ($15 University of Chicago), which received the National Book Critics Circle Award; What Is This Thing Called
Love, by Kim Addonizio ($13.95 Norton); and Czeslaw Milosz's posthumously
published volume of new poems, Second Space ($13.95 Ecco).
We'll close with this brief excerpt from A Wild Perfection: The Selected
Letters of James Wright --
To Laura Lee, January 1978
"I sometimes think that writing - writing of any kind, as long as it is done
for its own sake - is a matter of joining the seasons and following their
movements. For they don't move through time only. They move, as we move,
from place to place. As we move, we carry them, and they carry us - I think
of that odd and very beautiful word "bear" - the seasons bear us from one
place to another."
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