Written between 2015 and 2020, the poems of Walk Song build through
a series of sequences which look to animate solidarities and the
languages of rights. Taking their bearings from the Refugee Tales
project, and always grounded in the collective walk, these are
poems of friendship and move-ment, of landscape and politics, of
action and hope. Addressing the environments we have made, the
border and its hostilities, Walk Song sets out to picture settings
in which the language might be opened, step by step. "David Herd
opens his stunning new book by telling us that "it is an act of
welcome." Walk Song is a most welcome addition to what we might
call an advanced lyricism. A complex human song that touches all of
us. The formal achievement of the line is everywhere manifest in
this work. With grace and daring, Herd has written a gorgeous and
generous and necessary book." -Peter Gizzi "Walk Song combines
manifesto, mantra, lyric poem in a mode of address that ranges from
militant to tender to transcendent. Herd positions himself between
polis and poetics to call for 'a whole new language of welcome', a
renewal that embraces inclusion, commits to openness of borders, a
language (like the poem) that is rooted in the Declaration of Human
Rights: 'welcoming', 'celebratory', 'courteous', 'real'. The syntax
is organized by breath, fusing intention, intimacy and urgency.
Walk Song is generous, tender, affirming work."-Nancy Gaffield "The
vocabulary of David Herd's ongoing project is elemental, the line
breaks test the ground as they go. The mode appears at first to be
the personal lyric, where the self reaches out for relation. Yet,
by such a return to first principles, by letting the sentence
search both in its past and beyond history for the possibility of
welcome, the poems open up a visionary space that feels utterly new
and uncynical: where language is land is transcendent logic, where
collective being and a poetry of humbled alliance might be drafted,
where we might once again 'stand before [and against] the law / In
the entirety of what [we know]'." -Vivek Narayanan The poems of
Walk Song build through a series of sequences which look to animate
solidarities and the languages of rights. These are poems of
friendship and movement, landscape and politics, action and hope.
General
Imprint: |
Shearsman Books
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
June 2022 |
Authors: |
David Herd
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 6mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
92 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-84861-842-8 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-84861-842-5 |
Barcode: |
9781848618428 |
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