Keston: yes, I don't think Wilkinson's _Flung Clear_ was ever reviewed
properly.... well, I would imagine that its formidable nature was much of
the reason. Scary stuff--one hostile poet I knew had the response, "Oh
John, _lighten up_". -- But more to the point perhaps, much of that book is
taken up by the enormous swatch of work called "The Interior Planets", which
I find, compared to say _The Speaking Twins_ or _The Nile_ very hard to
navigate _as conceived as a book_. It's a big batch of poems from his
Birmingham years, but Wilkinson _does_ (I think?) conceive of his books as
integral collections not just whatever poems managed to escape his pen
during a set time. Yet the interrelationship of the poems is by no means
obvious; whereas I have a better sense of the (narrative & formal) "shape"
of say _The Nile_ or _The Speaking Twins_. -- This sounds terribly
ungrateful for Parataxis's generous presentation of a full-length collection
of Wilkinson's prime work--great poems like "Clash of Tongues" (which I
first knew in its appearance in the farewell issue of _Reality Studios_) or
the Ornette Coleman tribute "Harmolodics" (in _Parataxis_ 1) or many others.
(As I've indicated elsewhere in my comments on Bruce Andrews, I sometimes
find it easier to grapple with poems in isolation in magazines....)
I _would_ be grateful for comments on the Lake/Mendelssohn volume, because
I'm yet sure what I think of her work. Have been excited by much of it, but
there's a lot & it can seem unedited & careless. Doesn't help that
_Bernache Nonnette_ is so wretchedly typeset & copied as to defy all but the
most determined reader. So the Salt volume promises a good way in. I
should say that I was quite taken by her contribution to the Peter Riley
tribute volume _April Eye_.
all best --N
Nate & Jane Dorward
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THE GIG magazine: http://www.geocities.com/ndorward/
109 Hounslow Ave., Willowdale, ON, M2N 2B1, Canada
ph: (416) 221 6865
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