Customer Reviews (1)

is Very Rich

If offered the choice between money and poetry, I'd have to know two things:

How much money?
and
Who's poetry?

Through the first two-thirds of this collection, though occasionally spotting a treasure like "The Roofwalker" and "Trees" I struggle to recognize something I can't give up.
But in the selections from -The Will to Change- and -Diving into the Wreck- I am rest-assured.Rich's precise, scorching poems refuse to be forgotten and make me ask myself, feeling lucky: what if I had never read this?

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In an insightful and provocative juxtaposition, Margaret Dickie examines the poetry of three preeminent women writers—Gertrude Stein, Elizabeth Bishop, and Adrienne Rich—investigating the ways in which each attempts to forge a poetic voice capable of expressing both public concerns and private interests. Although Stein, Bishop, and Rich differ by generation, poetic style, and relationship to audience, all three are twentieth-century lesbian poets who struggle with the revelatory nature of language. All three, argues Dickie, use language to express and to conceal their experiences as they struggle with a censorship that was both culturally sanctioned and self-imposed. Dickie explores how each poet negotiates successfully and variously with the need for secrecy and the desire for openness.

By analyzing each poet's work in light of the shared themes of love, war, and place, Dickie makes visible a continuity of interests between these three rarely linked women. In their very diversity of style and strategy, she argues, lies a triumph of the creative imagination, a victory of poetry over polemic. ... Read more

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In Fashioning the Female Subject, Sabine Sielke addresses the often nebulous concept of female subjectivity through a critical analysis of the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, and Adrienne Rich, each of whom has uniquely fashioned and transformed the female subject over the last 150 years. Applying the feminist theories of Kristeva, Irigaray, and Cixous, Sielke articulately develops a notion of female subjectivity as an intertextual network, a network whose three historically distinct levels illustrate a clear evolution in the poetic designs of such subjectivity.
Acknowledging the semantics of the female body as the most contested battleground of female subject constitution, Sielke shows how a historical female subject emerges from Moore's and Rich's strategies of poetic mimicry and camouflage, and culminates in Rich's strategy of continuous re-vision. Like Dickinson, Rich creates "subjects-in-process," which, when projected as processes in history, are capably transformed from a sense of fluent subjectivity into an ethically responsible identity practice. Rich's poetics close a significant gap in French feminist theory, Sielke claims, by reconstructing the female subject as an agent of her own history.
Fashioning the Female Subject is a rereading of American women's poetry, a partial revisioning of French feminist theory, and a reassessment of Adrienne Rich as a central figure in American feminist theory. Offering a revisionary sense of literary history, Sielke's book offers a new model of literary affiliation to readers of poetry, scholars of literary history, feminist critics, and literary theorists alike.
Sabine Sielke is Assistant Professor of American Literature, John F. Kennedy-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin.
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A penetrating exploration of poetic life by a veteran poet, translator, and editor. ... Read more

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This winner of the APR First Book Prize was chosen by Adrienne Rich, who praises it as "intimate and erotic work The music evoked in this book is transcendent in its reaches." This collection is rooted in jazz, blues, and soul music, and debuts a voice that is by turns vampish and whispering as it sings the supple harmonies and lush dissonances of human connections. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

what an amazing surprise - what an amazing talent
jazz poets are a dime a dozen, so when I picked up this slim volume of poetry I had dim hopes.WOw, what a surprise; what verse and verve. Ed Pavlic's work is without a doubt the most profound, original, spirited and unpredictable in the poetry world today.Far beyond jazz, he lifts the word into that rare sphere where music and verse meet.Pass the word; this is a poet to watch and read and tell your friends about.

Jazz and the Written Word!
An excellent mixture of Jazz Rhythms and the spoken word. A true mixture of Art, Music,Emotion, and articulation. A must have for anyone who loves Poetry! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

She can hug your mother and rip the smirk off of a liar's face
William Parker. Bassist, Composer, Song Poet, Peace Warrior, Spirit Warrior, Rhythm Junkie, World-Class Appreciator of those who have come before, and those of the now. William is one of my favorite musicians of all time. It is through him and his great willingness to point towards those who have fanned his fires that I came to find June Jordan for myself. His "Poem for June Jordan" on the great albums, Corn Meal Dance and Sound Unity are what brought her name to my attention. I could never thank William enough for all the things he's given to me. Now along with Mayor of Punkville, The All-Star Game, Palm of Soul, Alphaville Suite and Raining on the Moon, the work of June Jordan is one of the major things.

I checked this out from the library just thinking hey I've never heard of her so I'll give her a shot. I was hoping for the best but if I didn't like it, no harm done. Directed By Desire was on my Christmas List before my first day with it had ended. I stressed it. If I get it, it'll be the big gift. If I don't get it, it'll be what I buy the day after Christmas. As it stands now, I just pour over the library copy everyday. It's way too clean. Way too untouched. She has hit me like a hurricane. Based on the power of what is inside, this library copy should be tear-stained, dirty, battered and bruised.

I don't get all the poems inside. As a writer she was beyond me. As a human I'm sure she was beyond me. The ones I don't yet get... the ones I may never fully get... they don't hurt the book. The way Who Look At Me, The End of Kindness, Kissing God Goodbye, Poem Because the 1996 Poet Laureate..., First Poem After Serious Surgery, etc... get to me... man. June was amazing. Alot of what's inside this book has me wiping tears from my eyes and saying again and again, "How is she not everywhere? How is it possible to go through school without a teacher, an older student, someone's parents telling me "hey kid, you might dig this June Jordan woman!"? I'm disappointed in myself for not finding her earlier. I want her to be in your life.

So much of this is so personal. I don't mean personal in the oft heard "It's like she/he is saying what I wish I could say" sort of way. I mean there are poems where she's sitting 2 feet away from me, looking me right in the eyes and laying it all out in front of me with love. Or she's calling me out when I'm full of it. Some of you have been reading June's work since before I was born. I'll not pretend I know her the way you know her but for me, this book is huge. Even for you I'd say it's essential. It says the "Last Poems" were previously unpublished. I love many of those so for me, it'd be worth it even if I already owned everything else.

This woman was a Goddess among us. It's a shame she had to live in our ugly world, but she didn't run from any of it.

(2/9/08 edit - I got it for Christmas! It's even better when it's at your fingertips whenever you want it.) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent view of Paris at its peak in this century.
Adrienne Monnier was one of the hidden focal points of the Lost Generation in Paris. Her bookstore, La Maison des Amis des Livres, was a meeting place for some of the most famous authors of the time and their fans. Joyce, Hemingway, Gide, Colette and Eliot were among her many associates in the literary world. In addition, she was in many ways a trailblazer. She opened her bookstore in 1915, at a time when women in France were obviously not encouraged to do such things. She pioneered the concept of a lending library in France, a luxury that Americans take for granted, and she cultivated a female clientele. She particularly encouraged them to use the library, as many women of the time did not have money of their own, and would not have been able to get money for books from their husbands. This book is a collection of essays, letters, and other writings by Monnier. Most of them appeared in one or more of the various literary journals she published. I found it fascinating because it talks about the period of history just prior to our own, and talks about her observances of the events which many no longer remember. She discusses going to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, her impressions on the young Alec Guiness, and her notes from the very first days of the occupation of Paris by the Germans, which chillingly reveal trying to get her Jewish friend to leave the country. Her observations on the famous people of the time are enhanced by her intimate knowledge of them all, and are, for that very reason, honest and unworshipping. Through the writings, one gets to know Adrienne Monnier and her friends. She is a gourmand, a bookseller, a denizen of Paris, an art lover, a theatre-goer, and a friend. She will provide you with a view of Paris between the World Wars unlike any other. ... Read more

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This is a study of women's thoughts and ideas spanning three centuries. The author contends that men have removed women from literary and historical records and deprived women of the knowledge of their intellectual heritage. This book is an attempt to redress the balance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dale Spender's, 'Women of Ideas'
This book should be required reading in the final year of secondary school. It is insightful, well researched and an eye opening view into the history of women in the English speaking Western World. This history needs to be taught as the history of men's ideas already is. ... Read more

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Word count: 5735. ... Read more

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Adrienne Rich is a major American poet who continues to be inspired by the political ideas and activism of various liberation movements of the twentieth century. Whether expressed in poetry or in prose, her ideas have been much debated, particularly within second wave feminism.

This unique introduction focuses on her prose work but also makes reference to the poetry where her political ideas and urgencies often find their first expression. Demonstrating the compexity and subtlety of Rich's contribution to feminism, the book outlines her wide-ranging thoughts on, for example, motherhood, heterosexuality, lesbian and Jewish identity, and issues of racial and sexual otherness. Liz Yorke conveys the range and importance of Rich's achievements and highlights the major themes which are interwoven in her work.

Lucid and accessible, Adrienne Rich will be essential reading for students in women's studies, American studies, modern literatuer and gender studies, as well as those with an interest in contemporary feminist thought.

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"She is the universal poet" (Alice Walker) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

broth for the modern soul
This is simply a swell collections of poems.Some are sweet, others painful.All are provoking.

The Heartbeat of a Lover's Soul
June Jordan's poetry beats furiously in the name of love: for Haruko, for life, for real.Since the human language is inadequate to truly express this emotion, Jordan manipulates and bends the written word to fit thehuman heart.When she describes love as "yes directed by desire"("When I or Else"), she speaks the living truth.

Read"Free Flight", "Roman Poem Number Five" and "12:01A.M." and let her words reverberate in your every mental crevice. Letyour feelings stir as hers until you see with love's eyes.That is thedefinition of poetry.

This book is damn good.
This book is blood, sweat and tears. It is the sweet succulence of love. Her poetry is bitter and rich. ... Read more

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The everyday is what the prophetic poet focuses on, that is what fills him with rage, that is what he wants to transform

The first book to describe and analyze at length the prophetic voice and the everyday voice in postwar and contemporary American poetry. Nick Halpern's commentaries on the work of Robert Lowell, A.R. Ammons, James Merrill, Adrienne Rich, Jorie Graham, and Louise Glück, serve the reader with a fresh and original context in which to see their work, and Postwar American poetry as a whole. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

insightful, well written
I knew little about poetry before reading this book.When I was done, I knew much more and was inspired to read more.Halpern is insightful and thorough here.His sections of analysis are well structured AND exciting. I finished the book wishing he had written more. ... Read more