Kinsella

Nice to see Kinsella getting some reviews online. It is also worth visiting "Intercapillary Space" to read more about poets like Douglas Oliver, and to have people who know the work reveal these works to us.

"Intercapillary Space": Thomas Kinsella, Marginal Economy

Technorati Tags: Thomas Kinsella

Technorati Tags: Thomas Kinsella

Kinsella

Nice to see Kinsella getting some reviews online. It is also worth visiting "Intercapillary Space" to read more about poets like Douglas Oliver, and to have people who know the work reveal these works to us.

"Intercapillary Space": Thomas Kinsella, Marginal Economy

Technorati Tags: Thomas Kinsella

Technorati Tags: Thomas Kinsella

All The Lavish In Common, Allan Peterson

Read a review of Allan Peterson's work at:

http://slickerchumways.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_slickerchumways_archive.html

It is one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time. I'm going to put together a long review when I have finished it. I have been reading it one poem at a time, so that I would be finished it too soon. More to come on this one.

Catherine Walsh Reviews by Mike Begnal

Thought this was a good introduction to a few Irish poets that don't get much coverage. http://mikebegnal.blogspot.com/

Pleiades Review of Slallow

Just found this review of Swallow. I think its pretty much on the ball. I try not to read reviews before forming my own opinion about a work, but i find it interesting that he zero's in on many of the concerns, indeed the lines, that I was drawn to myself yesterday.

http://www.cmsu.edu/englphil/pleiades/Field.html

Mirand Field: Swallow

Read Swallow over the last few days. Where she is strong is on prose poems such as Bestial and The Lost Head from the third section. There is much to like here in terms of turns of phrase, well warped metaphor etc. But I get the feeling that we are in the hands of a craftsperson, who is not bringing us on any real voyage. In Bestial there is the feeling of real conflict in a mothers love and a desire to inflict some pain on the loved one for his neediness, for his embodyment, for his inability to exist without being viewed by the mother. Then she turns mid phantasia (where the child is descirbed as "

"..fragile, almost transparent pale, foxed with sun-gold
splashes. And the lashes: The blue eyes suffer
a surfeit of them, ting scythes, black, baroquely curved.
He is too beautiful by far. The boy must not be so."

Now, you can see the craftsmanship in the lines. It is when she realises that she cannot idealise the boy, or give him a kind of ideal childhood, that things take a genuine twist.

"...the boy is what he must not be. Break him
a tiny bit. Look into him hard enough to wound him. A tiny bit.
    I mean:
Let the eye's stillness magnify the rigour of appraisal. He will not win.
Burn him with your look, his lovely skin."


Similarily in a poem like Citronella we find that within the lovely language of birth, but "Not get the girl I wanted. The boy slit me". It is at these moments where I feel that she is at the edge of an honesty where her craft can be left to as the guide, and the strange journey begins in earnest:

"...The tree is a rare strain -
bred for looking only. But the children open up the lemons
and the small birds eat and grow too full to fly away".
 

The New John Banville : Elegant Variation Has The Scoop

http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2006/05/in_which_all_pr.html

John Ashberry

The book, Region of Unlikeness by Thomas Gardner
has given me loads of insights into Ashberry. I've never "got" Ashberry before,
even though I've bought most of his books. I guess that when you are clued in to
what his main concerns are, and the strategies that he is using, the quote that
he is very like Wallace Stephens becomes apparent.

Bishop and Graham

The first chapter in region of unlikelness by Thomas Gardner he builds a really good case for considering Bishop as a precursor to Graham. The way that she builds out the "frame of reference", shows it to you, and then says, "yes, very well, but it simply will not do!" is discussed within an overall frame of the "sceptic". It also reminds me of a book I read recently on "the resitance of poetry" where the author discusses how we read poetry to hear the poet thinking, the flow of thought and feeling. After all those years of reading critical theory, here we are again, at the edge of reason.

Erosion

Picked up Jorie Graham's Erosion just to see if the theories of Gardner were evident from the early collections. What it showed me, I think, is that Graham has had a clear gift for the oblique image from the start. Will rest up now for the rest of the evening and finish this collection. I'm lucky to pretty much have all her work sitting on the floor beside me, so hey, when I eventually get around to typing up the Brenda Shaugnessy piece, I might develop a small one on Jorie. I'm sure she will only be delighted at the prospect ! ;)

Erosion

Picked up Jorie Graham's Erosion just to see if the theories of Gardner were evident from the early collections. What it showed me, I think, is that Graham has had a clear gift for the oblique image from the start. Will rest up now for the rest of the evening and finish this collection. I'm lucky to pretty much have all her work sitting on the floor beside me, so hey, when I eventually get around to typing up the Brenda Shaugnessy piece, I might develop a small one on Jorie. I'm sure she will only be delighted at the prospect ! ;)

Regions of Unlikeness

I picked up Regions of Unlikeness, Explaining Contemporary Poetry ,by Thomas Gardner recently, and the follow up series of essays he edited, Jorie Graham Essays on the Poetry, and I have to say from the opening 20 pages, I like this a lot. in Region of Unlikeness (which I shall now refer to rather knowlingly as ROU) looks back to the modenists such as Stevens to see how the project of expression within language, and through language, happens in full knowledge of its defeat, and that this is yet still in search of a poetic that retains a concern with remaining human, of a strategy of accepting the limit, and working within it. Quoting the Robert Hass lines from Human Wishes "A man thinks "liliacs against white houses"... from Spring Drawing Gardner shows us the mind recovering it's-self within that pause. It was originally Ciaran O'Driscoll that drew my attention to this poem, and these lines, and he knew that something important was going on here. I can only say i look forward to the rest of this journey. Its very timely, in that I have been writing a poem called "Sunday Morning Caesura" for about a year and a half now, and the concerns are central to me. Enough. Enough.

Legitamite Dangers: Half Way Through

Half way through this book and even poets that I like are not well represented here. More poems per poet are required. More later.

Legitimate Dancers

Picked up the new anthology Legitimate Dancers from Sarabande. Firstly, what a beautiful production and on a first reading of the contents page, a pretty focused rollcall of Poets. I've read about a third of the poets on the list and liked many of them, so looking foward to this. Also half way through Henri Cole's "Visible Man", and how unfashionable his aesthetic is, and how very very good many of these poems are. I had previously read "Middle Earth" and it too was good, but Visible Man has a cold heat. As per usual I have too much work to do to linger too long on poetry these days, but having said that, no one dies wishing the spent one more day in the office!

Categories: poetry, ireland, irish, crit, literature, criticism, contemporary, american,

Brigid Pegeen Kelly - Orchard

Much talk about this book, and the poem Dragon. Surreal in mentation, great grasp of moving from one image into another, some great end lines. Only half way through at the moment and I was reading it in the dead of the night so maybe all that talk of "mists", "wolves" and "dawn" was just a bit much. My initial response is that below the lovely surface, there isn't much depth here. I don't sense any world-view, any real insights into "the way we are", but then, maybe thats just not the kind of poet she is. I will return.

Forrest Gander is A Strange Guy

Have just about finished reading Forrest Gander's new book, and I must say it is elliptical, but with some kind of "realistic"/ "realism" cut up element to it. "A history of violence" is a series of poems where a criminal mind remembers the night and we as readers almost have to put it together for him. I don't think the collection as a whole lives up to the first few poems, but I am interested enough to follow up and find out more about him. Disclaimer, I know nothing about this guy at the moment !

Forest Gander, Science and Steepleflower

The book arrived from amazon, I opened the first poem (Time and The Hour) read the first line, "The convulsive incision tore light" finished it, and I am now waiting for a three hour period where I can give this book my full attention. This guys seems to have set the bar high, where it should be.

Peter Gizzi

Was reading Periplum and other poems the other night, made no sense to me. Then all of a sudden it all hung together for me. Very good. Very good indeed.

Todays Reading

Reading “Negative Capability: Contemporary American Poetry” by Linda Gregerson today. Mostly reviews published in Poetry and The Boston Review. The bottom line with her review and point of view (I think) is that clear old line between “Imagination” and “Fancy”. She also has a keen eye for the ethic underlying a poetic strategy.

Categories: poetry, ireland, irish, crit, literature, criticism, contemporary, american,

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