Inhoudsopgave:
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\u003cdiv\u003eHow can I celebrate love/ now that I know what it does? So begins this booklength lyric sequence which reinhabits and modernizes the story of Orpheus, the mythic master of the lyre (and father of lyric poetry) and Eurydice, his lover who died and whom Orpheus tried to rescue from Hades.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cBR\u003eGregory Orr uses as his touchstone the assertion that myths attempt to narrate a whole human experience, while at the same time serving a purpose which resists explanation. Through poems of passionate and obsessive erotic love, Orr has dramatized the anguished intersection of infinite longings and finite lives and, in the process, explores the very sources of poetry.\u003cBR\u003e\u003cBR\u003e\u003cI\u003eWhen Eurydice saw him\u003cBR\u003ehuddled in a thick cloak,\u003cBR\u003eshe should have known\u003cBR\u003ehe was alive,\u003cBR\u003ethe way he shivered\u003cBR\u003ebeneath its useless folds.\u003cBR\u003e\u003cBR\u003eBut what she saw\u003cBR\u003ewas the usual: a stranger\u003cBR\u003econfused in a new world.\u003cBR\u003eAnd when she touched him\u003cBR\u003eon the shoulder,\u003cBR\u003eit was nothing\u003cBR\u003epersonal, a kindness\u003cBR\u003ehe misunderstood.\u003cBR\u003eTo guide someone\u003cBR\u003ethrough the halls of hell\u003cBR\u003eis not the same as love.\u003c/I\u003e\u003cBR\u003e\u003cBR\u003e\"A reader unfamiliar with Orr\u0026rsquo;s work may be surprised, at first, by the richness of both action and visual detail that his succinct, spare poems convey. Lyricism can erupt in the midst of desolation.\"\u0026mdash;\u003cI\u003eBoston Globe\u003c/I\u003e\u003cBR\u003e\u003cBR\u003eWhen Gregory Orr\u0026rsquo;s \u003cI\u003eBurning the Empty Nest\u003c/I\u003e appear, \u003cI\u003ePublisher\u0026rsquo;s Weekly\u003c/I\u003e praised it as an \"auspicious debut for a gifted newcomer\u0026hellip;he already demonstrates a superior control of his medium.\" \u003cI\u003eKirkus Review\u003c/I\u003e celebrated it as \"an almost unbearably powerful first book of poetry\" and enthusiastically reviewed his second book \u003cI\u003eGathering the Bones Together\u003c/I\u003e, noting that \"Orr\u0026rsquo;s power is the eloquence of understatement.\" Most recently, his \u003cI\u003eCity of Salt\u003c/I\u003e was a finalist for the \u003cI\u003eLos Angeles Times Book Award\u003c/I\u003e. Gregory Orr teaches at the University of Virginia.\u003c/div\u003e |
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