"Must-Read Poetry: October 2019" by Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions
“Best Books of 2019,” Book Riot This astonishing, self-assured
debut leads us on an exploration to the stars and back, begging us
to reconsider our boundaries of self, time, space, and knowledge.
The speaker writes, “…the universe/is an arrow/without end/and
it asks only one question;/How dare you?” Zig-zagging through the
realms of nature, science, and religion, one finds St. Francis
sighing in the corner of a studio apartment, tides that are caused
by millions of oysters “gasping in unison,” an ark filled with
women in its stables, and prayers that reach God fastest by
balloon. There’s pathos: “When my new lover tells me I’m
correct to love him, I/realize the sound isn’t metal at all.
It’s not the coins rattling/ on concrete, but the fingers
scraping to pick them up.” And humor, too: “…even the sun’s
been sighing Not you again/when it sees me.” After reading this
far-reaching, inventive collection, we too are startled, space
struck, our pockets gloriously “filled with space dust.”
"Online, month by month, I watched it happen: a new genre of poem
was emerging, but I had no clue who was responsible. These brainy
poems didn't wait to spout off trivia, historical and
scientific—'Pavlov Was the Son of a Priest' (a characteristically
quotable title) recalls that 'the moon smells like spent
gunpowder,' then divulges some smoldering self-knowledge: 'I'm
sorry/I couldn't hide my joy when you said lonely.' . . . [T]hese
poems were fluent in funniness, retweetably jokey: 'I'm//the vice
president of panic, and the president is/missing.' But once the
play subsided, you found yourself moved—unaccountably, almost,
until you discovered, reading back up the poem, that even the
zaniest elements had several parts to play. What looked like a
genre, I soon realized, was all the handiwork of one poet. Their
name is Paige Lewis. . . . Don't doubt them."-—Christopher
Spaide, Poetry
General
Imprint: |
Sarabande Books, Incorporated
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
November 2019 |
Authors: |
Paige Lewis
|
Dimensions: |
215 x 139 x 12mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
96 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-946448-44-6 |
Categories: |
Books
Promotions
|
LSN: |
1-946448-44-3 |
Barcode: |
9781946448446 |
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