Elegy in Reverse Mike James 9780615952444 Books
Download As PDF : Elegy in Reverse Mike James 9780615952444 Books
“In these lean and loaded ‘Load every rift with ore’ poems, Mike James makes a world and its people so real that you think you know it and them, and even though you don’t you do, which is what good poems are supposed to, but rarely, do. This is a taut and splendid collection.” —Thomas Lux, author of Child Made of Sand and Split Horizon “Elegy in Reverse is a terrific book of miracles, redefined—a book that travels the gravel driveway of vernacular speech to the delicate poignancy of the house light gleaming. With sure-handed short lines and true wit, James’ voice is so down-to-earth that it splits open into the surreal—and so surreal that we find ourselves coming home—to the great here and now, brimming with wild apples, sadness, and burning days.”
—Jan Beatty, author of The Switching Yard and Red Sugar
“I like his sense of language and the way the lines fall off the page. I know the people in these poems.”
—Kell Robertson, author of A Horse Called Desperation and Bear Crossing
Elegy in Reverse Mike James 9780615952444 Books
Though Elegy in Reverse is unabashedly about friendship, the speaker begins with some poignant memories from his childhood home. The rest of the voices and characters we encounter in the book seem to move through the speaker’s sense of home. Occasionally, he yearns for an earlier, more innocent time. But always, he uses common, disciplined language as a means of accepting the sometimes funny, sometimes sad, the guilty and the innocent world as friendly and full of friendly exchanges. This is not a book that holds grudges but accepts and cradles the worn stone of memory and the words that come out of it. Mike James is a convincing poet whose book you will enjoy.Product details
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Tags : Elegy in Reverse [Mike James] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. “In these lean and loaded ‘Load every rift with ore’ poems, Mike James makes a world and its people so real that you think you know it and them,Mike James,Elegy in Reverse,Aldrich Press,0615952445,POETRY General
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Elegy in Reverse Mike James 9780615952444 Books Reviews
Michael James's wonderful new collection, "Elegy in Reverse," rings with understated eloquence, with a misleading simplicity. He is able to sum up in a few words some truth we've always harbored but been unable to express. In "Growing Older" he writes "gravity plays more in your decisions/ as it rearranges your body, pulls you closer to the earth/ as gradually you become someone else, then more so."
His poems, generally lean, possess an off-the-cuff feeling, a spontaneity. They are fresh, wise and wryly humorous. So many of them, "Jailbird" for example, or "Standing Nowhere" begin with a personal revelation and then surprise us, spread their wings, and take us in another direction, to another level of meaning—a universal one—and this, of course, is what poetry at its very best is supposed to do. Mike James is certainly capable of pulling this off and, even more impressive, he makes it seem so easy.
One look at these poems, and you can see that they are spare. But they are never simplistic or trite. Mike James has a way of nailing his ideas, stories, and feelings in very few words--a quality for which most poets strive. "you.../judge your life by what's not there/as much as what is."
As they say, what is left out of a poem is as important as what's left in; James knows exactly how that works. I enjoyed every word he left in.
Though Elegy in Reverse is unabashedly about friendship, the speaker begins with some poignant memories from his childhood home. The rest of the voices and characters we encounter in the book seem to move through the speaker’s sense of home. Occasionally, he yearns for an earlier, more innocent time. But always, he uses common, disciplined language as a means of accepting the sometimes funny, sometimes sad, the guilty and the innocent world as friendly and full of friendly exchanges. This is not a book that holds grudges but accepts and cradles the worn stone of memory and the words that come out of it. Mike James is a convincing poet whose book you will enjoy.
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