Literature

Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts

Paperback

Price:
$24.95/拢20.00
ISBN:
Published:
Jun 21, 1980
1980
Pages:
80
Size:
6 x 9.25 in.

鈥淗ow I would like to catch the world / at pure idea,鈥 writes Jorie Graham, for whom a bird may be an alphabet, and flight an arc. Whatever the occasion—and her work offers a rich profusion of them—the poems reach to where possession is not within us, where new names are needed and meaning enlarged. Hence, what she sees reminds her of what is missing, and what she knows suggests what she cannot. From any event, she arcs bravely into the farthest reaches of mind. Fast readers will have trouble, but so what. To the good reader afraid of complexity, I would offer the clear trust that must bond us to such signal poems as (simply to cite three appearing in a row) 鈥淢other’s Sewing Box,鈥 鈥淔or My Father Looking for My Uncle,鈥 and 鈥淭he Chicory Comes Out Late August in Umbria.鈥 Finally, the poet’s words again: 鈥… you get / just what you want鈥 and (just before that), 鈥淛ust as / from time to time / we need to seize again / the whole language / in search of / better desires.鈥—Marvin Bell