Errancy

Rating:
Summary: Who's Afraid of Helen Vendler . . . ?
Review: . . . or John Ashbery, or Wallace Stevens for that matter? Why is 'difficult' and 'complex' poetry suspect these days? Perhaps people are just so used to mediocrity that they can't be engaged by close, careful readings anymore. Writers like Graham are the ones who save the English language from such banalities. I appreciate Graham's many departures and returns, in the trans/parence of many of her pieces in this collection. Most of all, I appreciate its guardian angelship, the assured (w)holeness of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Seems too much like late Stevens
Review: Graham seems too involved with the imagery and particularly the style of the late poetry of Wallace Stevens. E.g., "An Ordinary Evening at New Haven."

Rating:
Summary: Seems too much like late Stevens
Review: In the Middle Ages, nobles employed individuals whose responsibility it was to illuminate manuscripts with images of fantastic color more glorious than the words themselves. Jorie Graham's illuminations of the natural world transform the ordinary (relationships, landscapes, experiences) into poetic, philosophical and theological tapestries of immense depth and complexity. In this book the "Aubade" and "Guardian Angel" series of poems are particularly powerful. All of Graham's poems are worthy of revisiting over and over again if only for the astonishing ways that revelation explodes from the "usual and customary" world throughout her work.

Rating:
Summary: Yes: Stevens and Ashbery
Review: Yes, Graham's The Errancy is in the spirit of Stevens and Ashbery--perhaps even inheriting their spirits--and what's wrong with that? This is my favorite book from a poet who has transformed American poetry--like Ashbery and Stevens before him--and has become in my mind the single greatest poet in the English language. The book is a chore and a treat--I recommend it very highly!

Rating:
Summary: Yes: Stevens and Ashbery
Review: Yes, Graham's The Errancy is in the spirit of Stevens and Ashbery--perhaps even inheriting their spirits--and what's wrong with that? This is my favorite book from a poet who has transformed American poetry--like Ashbery and Stevens before him--and has become in my mind the single greatest poet in the English language. The book is a chore and a treat--I recommend it very highly!