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A gathering of 'Tos,' dark horses
May 2, 2008, 12:05 AM
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This week concludes our monthlong look at some poetry books of note, with some comments on two additional meritorious titles.
W.S. Merwin is the author of two dozen books of poetry as well as a number of books of prose. He's the recipient of just about every major award there is in poetry. Including the Pulitzer Prize, the Bollingen Award and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award.
Merwin's latest volume, "Present Company" (Copper Canyon), is a selection of 100-odd poems, each beginning with the word "To," addressing a range of things - a feeling, a person, an idea, a place, an aspect of the self.
The range of concerns is impressive: wondering if the soul is singular or plural; if forgetting is traveling backward.
In others, Merwin considers abandoned bicycles, blue storks, mosquitoes, dust down the road - and his teeth, as the lost companions of Ulysses.
Merwin's language is simple - he's often bemused by the mundane - but, like the repetitive motion of waves finding silence in the sand, he opens some complex allusional windows, perceptual fenestra where the reflections of what once was, or even what might have been, shimmer in the grass of the here-and-now.
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Anthologies are tricky things to put together, analogous to putting together a group show of visual works around a particular theme. And, since, as been noted many times, the primary audience for poetry in this country is other poets, it would seem to make sense to ask a number of poets to pick some of their neglected favorites.
"Dark Horses: Poets on Overlooked Poems " (University of Illinois), edited by Joy Katz and Kevin Prufer, is an anthology of 67 such neglected poems, each selected by an American poet and accompanied by a commentary on why it was chosen.
In doing so, the editors have assembled a potpourri of concerns and a kind of primer on how poetry might connect with its various potential audiences.
This curatorial process has resulted in a wide-ranging selection (the whys of the choosing become interesting here): Billy Collins/Tom Clark; Amy Gerstler/Bert Myers; Mary Jo Bang/Sylvia Plath.
There are poems by both knowns - Man Ray, Ezra Pound, Emily Dickinson- and many, many unknowns.
The process and resulting collection is not only a view of the genre's orchestrated clamor, but also a glimpse into the extent of its diverse and unruly thicket.
- Kirk Robertson
lives in Fallon.
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