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New Books - 09/08
Shadow Architect ($15 Copper Canyon) is Emily Warn's meditation on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Informed by the letter's
structures, as well as by her study of sacred texts and various
interpretations, Ms. Warn blends strong, crisp imagist poems with poetry
using contemporary references -- "After my rendition in the cave, / they
engraved my name in a pink granite star // on Hollywood Boulevard. People
mill about." Ms. Warn includes quotations from her source texts in this
lively, thoughtful study.
The Cosmopolitan ($16 Coffee House), by Donna Stonecipher, was chosen by John Yau for the National Poetry Series. These shimmering, collage-like prose poems owe their inspiration to furniture ornamentation and a Joseph
Cornell box. Here's an example: "I opened my mouth and out flew the
butterfly from China. You opened your mouth and out flew the canary from the
coalmine. This place is Kafkaesque, he grumbled to himself in line at the
bank in a strange city, waiting for a lamp with the right number finally to
light up. Even if it is Prague."
Thomas James's sole book appeared in 1973, fell out of print, and for years
has been passed from hand to hand in photocopies by ardent fans. Now
Graywolf's Re/View Series, edited by Mark Doty, has brought back Letters to
a Stranger ($15), with a powerful introduction by Lucie Brock-Broido. The
poems are rich, strange, and searing, Gothic in their portrayal of desire
and death. Like Sylvia Plath, whose work he admired and responded to, James
died young by his own hand. But the poems he left behind (a few previously
unpublished ones are included here as well) retain their vigor --"Darkness
is draining off. Here are the sun's patinas. / A day-moon tries its pulse
and vanishes."
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