Ainu Dreams (Barrytown) [Paperback]

George Quasha (Author), Chic Hasegawa (Author)

Book Description

Series: Barrytown | Publication Date: May 15, 1999

In Ainu Dreams, poet George Quasha and buun, a Japanese artist living in America, collaborate in poetically manifesting the artist's richly articulated dream-life. These eighty-odd poems embody an ever-opening cosmos of curious image, surprising narrative, and enigmatic "teaching" in a language no one could have dreamed up alone. Structurally intriguing poems reveal the innards of the dreams themselves, yet always speak directly and readably, sometimes addressed to a second person (the poet? the reader?). The poems and even reading itself seem to be dreaming. Poet and dreamer both live in New York's Hudson Valley.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The oneiropoeia of AINU DREAMS, involving a remarkable process of collaboration, transcription, and transformation, has generated these affectionate, quirky, and questioning pages. Fables retrieved from the borders of consciousness, dialogues with the infinite and what lies beyond. What a wild idea, what fun!" -- Anselm Hollo

"There is a world of difference between the dream that is dreamed and the dream that is told. And maybe that difference is precisely the world we live in, the compromised latitudes between private dream and public telling. AINU DREAMS is an exciting book because it asks Who is dreaming? Who listens when who is telling? Negotiating issues of identity and absence, Quasha and Hasegawa weave and unweave subtle patterns of narrative -- a story is not just what can be told, but also what can be distorted, transformed, forgotten!" -- Robert Kelly

Age Of Wings
Apple
Around & About Tibet
Being Partial
Big Moon On The Verge
Blessed Dolls
Blue; 1: I Was A Giant Man
Blue; 2: Look Mom, No Minds
Carriers
Changing Form
Cleaning
Communication
Cooking With Earth
A Crack In The Air
Department Store
Excavation
Familiar Space
Field Work
Flying Doctor
Flying Upward
The Fool
G. Says He Knows How To Catch Time
A Great Wheel Day
Healing Ritual
How I Was Animated
A Huge White Bear
Human Paint
I Am A Member Of The Mind Circus
I Am Looking
I Am The Master Box Maker
I Found A Way
I Get Reversed
I Heard They Caught The Blue Dragon
I Was Designing A Human Airplane
In Common
Instrumental Opening
Invisible Tree
Jesus Christ Is In The Room
Journeying
Judging By Appearances
Knot
Limited Communication
A Logic Of Two Kinds
Meaningless Chili
Meet Me In The Sky
Millennial Name
My White Dog
Natural Offense
Nest Living
Odds Are
Philosophical Immunity
Phone Call
The Place Of Buttons
Portrait With Red Bird
Real Feast
Rebound
Risque
Sitting On Thin Glass
Spiral Trees Or How To Interpret A Chinese Movie
Taking Space
Telling Sky
There Are Places
This Beautiful Little Girl
Traveling Around In Southern Caucasia
True Tangerines
Twins At Hand
Two Arts
Two Objects Hanging In Air
Virtual Relations
What's It Like To Be 84%?
White Retriever
A Woman Is Carrying The Full Moon
Word Expanse
Your Death
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

There is a world of difference between the dream that is dreamed and the dream that is told. And maybe that difference is precisely the world we live in, the compromised latitudes between private dream and public telling. Ainu Dreams is an exciting book because it asks Who is dreaming? Who listens when who is telling? Negotiating issues of identity and absence, Quasha and Hasegawa weave and unweave subtle patterns of narrative-a story is not just what can be told, but also what can be distorted, transformed, forgotten. They teach us to read with our eyes closed, and hear images as if we were, as we are, dreaming. Ainu Dreams is also a timely book, because it marks the first publication in many years by the important American poet whose long poem, Somapoetics, was a vital ingredient in the shaping of recent poetics. -- Robert Kelly

About the Author

George Quasha is the co-founder of Barrytown/Station Hill Press. He is a poet and artist who works across mediums to explore principles in common within language, sculpture, drawing, video, sound, installation, and performance. His awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry (1975), and a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in video art (2006).

Product Details

• Paperback: 141 pages
• Publisher: Barrytown/Station Hill Press, Inc.; 1 edition (May 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581770537
• ISBN-13: 978-1581770537
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,248,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cerebrally stimulating and very esoteric, September 20, 1999

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This review is from: Ainu Dreams (Barrytown) (Paperback)

In Ainu Dreams, poet George Quasha and buun, a Japanese artist living in America, collaborate in poetically manifesting the artist's richly articulated dream-life. These eighty-odd poems embody an ever-opening cosmos of curious image, surprising narrative and enigmatic teaching in a language no one could have dreamed up alone. It is a remarkable collaboration which serves to give sustenance and distinction to what is dreamt what is real and what can be. Cerebrally stimulating and very esoteric this is one of the best books of the year!

Leslie Blanchard

Editor A Writer's Choice Literary Journal ISSN: 1521-2319