wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) (02/28/85)
Here are excerpts from four books of poetry published in 1983 and 1984 that I thought readers of this newsgroup might be interested in. Two are by newcomers, and two by 'established' poets. They are short excerpts from longer works and I refer you to the published books for the complete poems. I've found the Clampitt and Kenney books (the newcomers) to be the most surprising and enjoyable of the lot. They reveal a maturity and technique that's rare in a first book in any genre. The Hughes book is, I think, the best thing he's done since 'Crow.' I don't feel Merwin is writing powerful stuff as consistently as he did back when 'The Lice' and 'The Carrier Of Ladders' came out, but there are several gems that make its purchase worthwhile. In each case, I've supplied a list of poems that I particularly enjoy. Enjoy. And if you like these samples, support the writers by buying their books! [To legal beagles: this is a short review or critique. I've clearly stated in the above paragraph how I feel about these books, and have recommended their purchase to the readers of this note. The short excerpts below convey the sense of the poems and are intended to support my positive comments about the books containing them; the longer poems that contain them can only be appreciated in full by going back to the sources] ------------------------ "The Kingfisher," by Amy Clampitt. Alfred A. Knopf, NY: 1983. $6.95 I'm particularly impressed by: Fog, Beach Glass, A Procession At Candlemas, The Quarry, Imago, Good Friday, Or Consider Prometheus. This excerpt is from the poem 'Good Friday:' Think of the Serengeti lions looking up, their bloody faces no more culpable than the acacia's claw on the horizon of those yellow plains: think with what concerted expertise the red-necked, down-ruffed vultures take their turn, how after them the feasting maggots hone the flayed wildebeest's ribcage clean as a crucifix -- a thrift tricked out in ribboned rags, that looks like waste -- and wonder what barbed whimper, what embryo of compunction, first unsealed the long compact with a limb-from-limb outrage. ------------------------ "River," by Ted Hughes. Harper & Row, NY: 1983. $6.95 I especially like these poems: Flesh Of Light, The Morning Before Christmas, Four March Watercolours, The Merry Mink, That Morning, The Gulkana, October Salmon, Salmon Eggs. This from a poem called 'Four March Watercolours:' The river-epic Rehearses itself. Embellishes afresh and afresh Each detail. Baroque superabundance. Earth-mouth brimming. But the snow-melt Is an invisible restraint. If there are salmon Under it all, they are in coma. They are stones Lodged among stones, sealed as fossils Under the grained pressure. I look down onto the pour Of melted chocolate. They look up At a guttering lamp Through a sand-storm boil of silt That scratches their lidless eyes, Fumes from their gill-petals. They have to toil, Trapped face-workers, in their holes of position Under the mountain of water. ---------------------- "The Evolution Of The Flightless Bird," by Richard Kenney. Yale University Press, New Haven: 1984. $4.95 (?) These poems impressed me most: The Hours Of The Day, In April, Five Grotesques, The Evolution Of The Flightless Bird, The Battle Of Valcour Island. This from a poem called 'In April:' We stand, imagining the strobe of afternoons since earth began, the unregenerate gray ground slacking weight all around us, once more unfreezing, to be frozen again and thrown back again in twigs and slag snow, and nowhere grace or quick or leaf, the least flush or fragrance -- Then in some cold bedroom -- as finely dreamt as riffling cotton sleeves, and all the plant stems like new copper by the road -- a seine, a spill of hair will fall and touch the face to simple recognition, then: that blind instant caught, in the absence of desire, out of the confusing sun, when two of our species reach thoughtlessly to groom one another, to smooth the other's skin. ---------------------- "Opening The Hand," by W. S. Merwin. Atheneum, NY: 1983. $6.95 I liked best: The Houses, Birdie, The Cow, Late Wonders, The Shore, Berryman, Ali, What Is Modern, Hearing. And finally, this from a poem called 'Berryman:' as for publishing he advised me to paper my wall with rejection slips his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled with the vehemence of his view about poetry he said the great presence that permitted everything and transmuted it in poetry was passion passion was genius and he praised movement and invention I had hardly begun to read I asked how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all and he said you can't you can't you can never be sure you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good if you have to be sure don't write W. Ingogly Univ. of North Carolina
jcp@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla) (03/01/85)
Another recent book of poetry that may interest the group is "Henry Purcell in Japan", by Mary Jo Salter. She's originally from Towson, Md, and has been published in the New Yorker, among other places. -- jcpatilla "'Get stuffed !', the Harlequin replied ..."