David Lazar extends the language of prose poetry, mixing the classical and the high modern, the song and dance man and the Odyssean. Nothing, he finds, is as far apart as we think, except for the chaos and order, innocence and experience. Lazar’s voice is a sacred last resort: something’s gotta give.
The voice in these poems is semi-autobiographical and performative: masked yet emotionally raw. Each poem draws on the features of modernist poetry, using an arch, cadenced sentence as its primary unit, but drawing on theIliad,Odyssey, and other classical myths as part of its internal cosmos.
A sequence of prose poems about the ravages of love, how we desire it, and whether we care to recover.
The voice in these prose poems is semi-autobiographical, and performative; masked yet emotionally raw. It draws on features of modernist poetry, uses an arch, cadenced sentence as its primary unit, but draws on theIliad,Odysseyand other classical myths as part of its internal cosmos.
The book is an essay, of sorts, and a chorus of one, splintered. It takes the prose poem to a new pitch of expressive and intellectual discourse.
The speaker dreams himself in and out of movies and cities: Troy, Paris, London. On the verge of dissolution, he understands that memory is almost never a consolation, that it draws blood as a price for its music. When we are ashen, irony is the instrument that we keep checking for in our pockets. Lazar's voice is a sacred last resort:something's gotta give.
Cover art features a Frederick Sandys painting of Helen of Troy, courtesy of National Museums LiverpoolBy Grand Central Station|Elizabeth|Smart|9780679738046 |15.95|Random House|March 1992&
Bluets|Maggie|Nelson|9781933517407 |14.00|Nelson Wave Books|Oct. 2009&
Dearest Creature|Amy|Gerstler|9780143116356|18.00|Penguin Books|Sept. 2009&
Shadow of a Cloud Bul£P
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