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Damn, Candice even with your strange quotation marks, you've shown me another group of books I'll have to try & track down (as if the unread pile isn't already accusing me!). Thanks for this Doug On 23-Jun-08, at 11:03 AM, MC Ward wrote: > I've been reading--and learning from--three new texts published > by Peter Hughes's Oystercatcher Press: Kelvin Corcoran's > _What Hit Them_ , Peyer Riley's _Best at Night Alone_ , and > Hughes's own work _The Sardine Tree_ .They are highly distinct > from one another, yet share some important commonalities, such as > what Riley calls "the company of song." Specific song > titles--"Moon of Alabama," "Take Me Home, Country > Roads," "This Little Light of Mine," "Here Comes > the Rain Again," and, most tellingly, "Ain't Gonna > Study War No More"--act as lamentation more than celebration, > for these poetries are political in their antiwar campaigns and > consequences. As imaged by children doing what they do (running, > laughing, playing), a measure of hope emerges, especially in > Riley's perspective ("Hope sleeps there, the quiet > place"), less so in Hughes's, where "stars > steer us in sleep" and "we steer the earth with > signs," "remembering Bobby Sands" and "the > children [who] came a poor third" after "the word society > was scorched" and after our gardens " were scorched." > Corcoran's perspective is announced in his title and the > preceding implied words that go begging, "they never knew" > in a work that ends fiercely: > > Euclid head down in a vacuum > black snow falling bitter bread cast > in the actions of men who know > [what hit them.] > > all too well. > > As Corcoran's Acknowledgments indicate, _What Hit Them_ is a > response to an art exhibition called "Geometries of Fear," > an angle that even his cover image (a photograph by Hughes of a > sunken boat) reflects in its triangularity. Interestingly, > Riley's title, _Best at Night Alone_," echoes and inverts > the line in his text that reads "Best alone at night," > changing the emphasis from darkness to solitude; while _The Sardine > Tree_ (Hughes) entitles the context of Miro's art: > > _interviewer_: > > _The Concise Dictionary of Surrealism_ > calls you the "Sardine Tree" why > > _Miro_: > > I wonder > > Just so. > > What remains to be said of all three books is their preoccupation > with visual art and its relationships to poetry: "The poets / > dream of honour but hope / is self-propagating" (Riley); > "If this is a poem about the death / of the one the many / > there must have been children sleeping / in sweet abandonment" > (Corcoran); "I gave the paintings very poetic names / because > the only thing left to us / in the world then was poetry" > (Hughes). > > I hope I've whetted your appetite for Oystercatcher books. This > is a press well worth watching. > > What are _you_ reading? > > Candice > > > > Douglas Barbour [log in to unmask] http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/ Latest books: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy) http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664 Wednesdays' http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line. In baseball the object is to go home! George Carlin, RIP