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An Individual History describes the fears, anger, and guilt
personal, familial, societal, political, and historical that
comprise a life. The figure of the speaker s maternal grandmother
who was institutionalized for five decades serves as an overriding
metaphor for this haunting, bold new work by an essential American
poet. from An Individual History This was before the time of
lithium and Zoloft before mood stabilizers and anxiolytics and
almost all the psychotropic drugs, but not before thorazine, which
the suicide O Laughlin called handcuffs for the mind. It was
before, during, and after the time of atomic fallout, Auschwitz,
the Nakba, DDT, and you could take water cures, find solace in
quarantines, participate in shunnings, or stand at Lourdes among
the canes and crutches."
Whether Michael Collier is writing about an airline disaster, a
friendship with a disgraced Catholic bishop, his father's encounter
with Charles Lindbergh, Lebanese beekeepers, a mother's sewing
machine, or a piano in the woods, he does so with the syntactic
verve, scrupulously observed detail, and flawless ear that has made
him one of America's most distinguished poets. These poems cross
expanses, connecting the fear of missing love and the bliss of
holding it, the ways we speak to ourselves and language we use with
others, and deep personal grief and shadows of world history. The
Missing Mountain brings together a lifetime of work, chronicling
Collier's long and distinguished career as a poet and teacher.
These selections, both of previously published and new poems, chart
the development of Collier's art and the cultivations of is
passions and concerns.
Think of a time when you've feigned courage to make a friend,
feigned forgiveness to keep one, or feigned indifference to simply
stay out of it. What does it mean for our intimacies to fail us
when we need them most? The poems of this collection explore such
everyday dualities-how the human need for attachment is as much a
source of pain as of vitality and how our longing for transcendence
often leads to sinister complicities. The title poem tells the
conflicted and devastating story of the poet's friendship with the
now-disgraced Bishop of Phoenix, Arizona, interweaving fragments of
his parents' funerals, which the Bishop concelebrated, with
memories of his childhood spiritual leanings and how they were
disrupted by a pedophilic priest the Bishop failed to protect him
from. This meditation on spiritual life, physical death, and
betrayal is joined by an array of poised, short lyrics and
expansive prose poems exploring how the terror and unpredictability
of our era intrudes on our most intimate moments. Whether Collier
is writing about an airline disaster, Huey Newton's trial, Thomas
Jefferson's bees, a piano in the woods, or his own fraught
friendship with the disgraced Catholic Bishop, his syntactic verve,
scrupulously observed detail, and flawless ear bring the felt-and
sometimes frightening-dimensions of the mundane to life.
Throughout, this collection pursues a quiet but ferocious need to
get to the bottom of things.
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Medea (Paperback)
Euripides; Translated by Michael Collier, Georgia Ann Machemer
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R352
R290
Discovery Miles 2 900
Save R62 (18%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The Greek Tragedy in New Translations series is based on the
conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves, or
who work in collaboration with poets, can properly re-create the
celebrated and timeless tragedies of the great Greek writers. These
new translations are more than faithful to the original text, going
beyond the literal meaning in order to evoke the poetic intensity
and rich metaphorical texture of the Greek language.
Euripides was one of the most popular and controversial of all the
Greek tragedians, and his plays are marked by an independence of
thought, ingenious dramatic devices, and a subtle variety of
register and mood. Medea, is a story of betrayal and vengeance.
Medea, incensed that her husband Jason would leave her for another
after the many sacrifices she has made for him, murders both his
new bride and their own children in revenge. It is an excellent
example of the prominence and complexity that Euripides gave to
female characters. This new translation does full justice to the
lyricism of Euripides original work, while a new introduction
provides a guide to the play, complete with interesting details
about the traditions and social issues that influenced Euripides's
world.
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Freckles (Paperback)
Danyel Whitener; James Michael Collier
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R267
Discovery Miles 2 670
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Seriously Funny - Poems About Love, Death, Religion, Art, Politics, Sex, and Everything Else (Hardcover, New)
Barbara Hamby, David Kirby; Contributions by David Bottoms, Lucille Clifton, Wanda Coleman, …
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R2,382
Discovery Miles 23 820
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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This is an anthology of irreverence and humor in the hands of our
best poets. Can serious poetry be funny? Chaucer and Shakespeare
would say yes, and so do the authors of these 187 poems that
address timeless concerns but that also include comic elements.
Beginning with the Beats and the New York School and continuing
with both marquee-name poets and newcomers, ""Seriously Funny""
ranges from poems that are capsized by their own tomfoolery to
those that glow with quiet wit to ones in which a laugh erupts in
the midst of terrible darkness. Most of the selections were made in
the editors' battered compact car, otherwise known as the Seriously
Funny Mobile Unit. During the two years in which Barbara Hamby and
David Kirby made their choices, they'd set out with a couple of
boxes of books in the back seat, and whoever wasn't driving read to
the other. When they found that a poem made both of them think but
laugh as well, they earmarked it. Readers will find a true
generosity in these poems, an eagerness to share ideas and emotions
and also to entertain. The singer Ali Farka Toure said that honey
is never good when it's only in one mouth, and the editors of
""Seriously Funny"" hope its readers find much to share with
others.
"Michael Collier's book is refreshing in its refusal to push for
one particular aesthetic. He regards his own preference for realism
over abstraction as more a matter of temperament than of considered
judgment, and respects poets more skeptical than he is about the
ability of poetry to connect with the world. The result is an
engaging record of his influences and enthusiasms, which are wide
enough to include both Whitman and Larkin, both Jorge Borges and
William Maxwell."--Carl Dennis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
"Unknown Friends" and "Practical Gods" "Michael Collier combines
pietas and wildness in these essays on poetry as inheritance, and
poetry as struggle. One feels the young man in his 'rampage of
literature, ' and the older writer reflecting on an art that is at
once personal and impersonal, deeply matured in the imagination.
This is a wise and well-lived book."--Rosanna Warren, author of
"Departure" and "Stained Glass" "The essays and remembrances in
"Make Us Wave Back" radiate Michael Collier's characteristic
insight and sagacity on every page. Clear-minded, ardent, brightly
illuminating the art of poetry, this is as lucid as writing about
writing gets."--Campbell McGrath, author of "Pax Atomica" and
"Florida Poems" National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Michael
Collier explores the influences that have made him one of the most
distinguished poets of his generation. "Make Us Wave Back" includes
essays on an expansive list of subjects, among them the literary
correspondence of William Maxwell; the meaning of the author's own
role as poet laureate of the state of Maryland; the journals of
Louise Bogan and how they reveal Bogan's struggle with her own
personal fears aswell as the reconstruction of herself as a writer;
and many more.Michael Collier is Professor of English and
Codirector of the creative writing program at the University of
Maryland. He is also director of the Bread Loaf Writers'
Conference. He is the author of several books of poems, including
"The Clasp and Other Poems, The Folded Heart," and "The Ledge,"
The San Andreas Fault is the most famous fault on Earth, running
nearly the entire length of western California from just north of
the Mexican border to the Mendocino coast. It is a very active
tectonic boundary which directly affects the lives of more than
twenty million people. The San Andreas Fault has been responsible
for shaping much that is beautiful about California, and it also
has the capacity to destroy the communities that lie along its
course. "A Land in Motion" provides a geologic tour of the San
Andreas Fault in an accessible narrative punctuated with dramatic
color illustrations, lively anecdotes, and authoritative
information about earthquakes.
As he tours the length of the fault, Michael Collier provides a
valuable overview of plate tectonics and gives a geologic history
of the San Andreas Fault written for non-scientists. He discusses
the evolution of seismology as a science and traces the knowledge
that scientists have gleaned about earthquakes and plate tectonics
from their work on the San Andreas Fault. Collier looks into human
history as well, discussing major earthquakes that have hit the San
Andreas, including the famous San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the
San Fernando quake of 1971, the Loma Prieta quake of 1989, the
Landers quake of 1992, and many lesser temblors.
Collier illustrates his text with magnificent photographs that
highlight some of the most beloved landscapes in California. He
provides excellent views of the fault throughout the state--of
Crystal Springs reservoir near San Francisco, of Pinnacles National
Monument east of Monterey, of the Golden Gate National Recreation
Area and Point Reyes National Seashore near San Francisco, and
more.
Collier concludes his tour of the San Andreas Fault with a
provocative discussion on earthquake prediction versus earthquake
planning that all Californians--and all who live where earthquakes
occur--will want to read.
The award-winning poet Michael Collier's elegiac fifth collection
is haunted by spectral figures and a strange, vivid chorus of
birds: From a cardinal that crashes into a window to a gathering of
turkey vultures, Collier engages birds as myth-makers and lively
messengers, carrying memories from lost friends. The mystery of
death and the vital absence it creates are the real subjects of the
book. Collier juxtaposes moments of quotidian revelation, like
waking to the laughing sounds of bird song, with the drama of Greek
tragedy, taking on voices from Medea. As Vanity Fair praised, his
poems "tread nimbly between moments of everyday transcendence and
spiritual pining."
William Maxwell, who died in July 2000, was revered as one of the
twentieth century's great American writers and a longtime fiction
editor at "The New Yorker." Now writers who knew Maxwell and were
inspired by him both the man and his work offer intimate essays,
most specifically written for this volume, that "bring him back to
life, right there in front of us." Alec Wilkinson writes of Maxwell
as mentor; Edward Hirsch remembers him in old age; Charles Baxter
illuminates the magnificent novel "So Long, See You Tomorrow"; Ben
Cheever recalls Maxwell and his own father; Donna Tartt vividly
describes Maxwell's kindness to herself as a first novelist; and
Michael Collier admires him as a supreme literary correspondent.
Other appreciations include insightful pieces by Alice Munro,
Anthony Hecht, a poem by John Updike, and a brief tribute from
Paula Fox. Ending this splendid collection is Maxwell himself, in
the unpublished speech "The Writer as Illusionist."
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Ledge (Paperback)
Michael Collier
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R401
R350
Discovery Miles 3 500
Save R51 (13%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Michael Collier's much acclaimed fourth collection of poetry poises experience on the ledge between the everyday and the unknown. In THE LEDGE, the poems are narrative and colloquial, musical and crystalline, at once intimate and sharp-edged. The world is rendered beautifully mysterious as the poems slide into unexpected emotional territory. The artistry and directness of THE LEDGE confirm Collier's place among the most significant poets of his generation.
"Michael Collier's book is refreshing in its refusal to push for
one particular aesthetic. He regards his own preference for realism
over abstraction as more a matter of temperament than of considered
judgment, and respects poets more skeptical than he is about the
ability of poetry to connect with the world. The result is an
engaging record of his influences and enthusiasms, which are wide
enough to include both Whitman and Larkin, both Jorge Borges and
William Maxwell."--Carl Dennis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
"Unknown Friends" and "Practical Gods" "Michael Collier combines
pietas and wildness in these essays on poetry as inheritance, and
poetry as struggle. One feels the young man in his 'rampage of
literature, ' and the older writer reflecting on an art that is at
once personal and impersonal, deeply matured in the imagination.
This is a wise and well-lived book."--Rosanna Warren, author of
"Departure" and "Stained Glass" "The essays and remembrances in
"Make Us Wave Back" radiate Michael Collier's characteristic
insight and sagacity on every page. Clear-minded, ardent, brightly
illuminating the art of poetry, this is as lucid as writing about
writing gets."--Campbell McGrath, author of "Pax Atomica" and
"Florida Poems" National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Michael
Collier explores the influences that have made him one of the most
distinguished poets of his generation. "Make Us Wave Back" includes
essays on an expansive list of subjects, among them the literary
correspondence of William Maxwell; the meaning of the author's own
role as poet laureate of the state of Maryland; the journals of
Louise Bogan and how they reveal Bogan's struggle with her own
personal fears aswell as the reconstruction of herself as a writer;
and many more.Michael Collier is Professor of English and
Codirector of the creative writing program at the University of
Maryland. He is also director of the Bread Loaf Writers'
Conference. He is the author of several books of poems, including
"The Clasp and Other Poems, The Folded Heart," and "The Ledge,"
No one in America would deny that the weather has changed
drastically in our lifetime. We read about El Nino and La Nina, but
how many of us really understand the big picture beyond our own
front windows or even the headlines on the Weather Channel?
Hydrologists and climatologists have long been aware of the role of
regional climate in predicting floods and understanding droughts.
But with our growing sense of a variable climate, it is important
to reassess these natural disasters not as isolated events but as
related phenomena. This book shows that floods and droughts don't
happen by accident but are the products of patterns of wind,
temperature, and precipitation that produce meteorologic extremes.
It introduces the mechanics of global weather, puts these processes
into the longer-term framework of climate, and then explores the
evolution of climatic patterns through time to show that floods and
droughts, once considered isolated "acts of God," are often related
events driven by the same forces that shape the entire atmosphere.
Michael Collier and Robert Webb offer a fresh, insightful look at
what we know about floods, droughts, and climate variability--and
their impact on people--in an easy-to-read text, with dramatic
photos, that assumes no previous understanding of climate
processes. They emphasize natural, long-term mechanisms of climate
change, explaining how floods and droughts relate to climate
variability over years and decades. They also show the human side
of some of the most destructive weather disasters in history. As
Collier and Webb ably demonstrate, "climate" may not be the smooth
continuum of meteorologic possibilities we supposed but rather the
sum of multiple processes operating both regionally and globally on
different time scales. Amid the highly politicized discussion of
our changing environment, "Floods, Droughts, and Climate Change"
offers a straightforward scientific account of weather crises that
can help students and general readers better understand the causes
of climate variability and the consequences for their lives.
Since issuing its first volumes in 1959, the Wesleyan poetry
program has challenged the reigning aesthetic of the time and
profoundly influenced the development of American poetry. One of
the country's oldest programs, its greatest achievement has been
the publication of early works by yet undiscovered poetry who have
since become major awarded Pulitzer and Bollingen prizes, National
Book Awards, and many other honors. At a time when other programs
are being phased out, Wesleyan takes this opportunity to celebrate
its distinguished history and reaffirm its commitment to poetry
with publication of The Wesleyan Tradition.
Drawing from some 250 volumes, editor Michael Collier documents the
wide-ranging impact of these works. In his introduction, he
describes the literary and cultural context of American poetics in
more recent decades, tracing the evolution of the Deep Image and
Confessional movements of the 50s and 60s, and exploring the
emergence of the "prose lyric" style. Although the success of the
Wesleyan program has inspired its share of imitators, no other
program has had such a fundamental impact. Works by the eighty-six
poets included her both document and celebrate that
contribution.
An Individual History describes the fears, anger, and
guilt-personal, familial, societal, political, and historical-that
comprise a life. The figure of the speaker's maternal grandmother
who was institutionalized for five decades serves as an overriding
metaphor for this haunting, bold new work by an essential American
poet. from "An Individual History" This was before the time of
lithium and Zoloft before mood stabilizers and anxiolytics and
almost all the psychotropic drugs, but not before thorazine, which
the suicide O'Laughlin called "handcuffs for the mind." It was
before, during, and after the time of atomic fallout, Auschwitz,
the Nakba, DDT, and you could take water cures, find solace in
quarantines, participate in shunnings, or stand at Lourdes among
the canes and crutches.
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