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New Books - 11/06
Collected Poems by Lynda Hull ($15 Graywolf) Lynda Hull was quickly
becoming a much praised voice in contemporary American poetry when she died
in an auto accident in 1994, and her three books fell out of print. This
long hoped for volume brings back her lush and gritty work, with its
lyricism and unflinching portrayal of troubled lives, her own included. A
runaway at 16, she wrote compassionately of those in "the harsh / auroral
radiance of the squad car's liquid lights," of the marginalized or
struggling in myriad ways. Despite the tinge of melancholy, her poems are
not depressing, girded as they are by a survivor's strength and a
jazz-infused love of the world.
Strong Is Your Hold by Galway Kinnell ($25 Houghton Mifflin) This book
of new poems by Mr. Kinnell includes a CD of his reading and in some cases
discussing the work. This is his first book of new poems in more than ten
years. The richly musical poetry focuses on his customary subjects: rugged,
rural domesticity; charming parenting; and sensuality and sexuality. For an
example of his music try, "I touched a match / to the oil rag knotted to the
thick end / of a thick stick and hurled it, javelin / style, into the core
of the pile." Included here is his moving narrative of, and contemplation
of, the events of September 11, 2001.
Recyclopedia: Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse & Drudge
by Harryette Mullen ($15 Graywolf) This volume is a collection of
three previously published small-press books by the delightfully inventive
Ms. Mullen. Her most recent work, _Sleeping with the Dictionary_, was a
finalist for the National Book Award in 2002, and one sees clearly that
book's unique linguistic pizzazz in these earlier works. She fuses elements
as disparate as traditional African-American blues structures and Gertrude
Stein's fractured rhetoric, achieving a hybrid that simultaneously critiques
culture and is joyously engaging. "Some panties are plenty. Some are scanty.
Some or any. Some is ante." It's wonderful to have this work available
again.
The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer, translated by
Robin Fulton ($16.95 New Directions) The rumor is that the exceptional
Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer would have won the Nobel Prize by now were he
not from Sweden (where the prize is administered). He is certainly
deserving. His work is beautiful, mystical, haunted -- "A hidden tuning fork
/ in the great cold / sends out its tone. // I stand under the starry sky /
and feel the world creep / in and out of my coat / as in an anthill." This
volume, a revised and expanded version of the earlier Bloodaxe edition,
gathers all the poems he has published in book form, including work from as
recent as 2004. We'll close with one of his poems.
"Allegro"
I play Haydn after a black day
and feel a simple warmth in my hands.
The keys are willing. Soft hammers strike.
The resonance green, lively, and calm.
The music says freedom exists
and someone doesn't pay the emperor tax.
I push down my hands in my Haydnpockets
and imitate a person looking on the world calmly.
I hoist the Haydnflag -- it signifies:
"We don't give in. But want peace."
The music is a glasshouse on the slope
where the stones fly, the stones roll.
And the stones roll right through
but each pane stays whole.
-- Tomas Tranströmer
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