Alien Candor: Selected Poems, 1970-1995 [Paperback]

Andrei Codrescu (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Language did not seem all that important," writes the Romanian-born Andrei Codrescu in the introduction to his Alien Candor: Selected Poems 1970-1995. "The main thing was being a poet." Codrescu, who cheerfully admits that he was just learning English when he wrote the first poems in the selection (it took him until 1973 to capitalize his I's), has never let lingusitic niceties limit self-expression. Fans of Codrescu's NPR commentaries will likely enjoy this retrospective in verse.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

&
& Power
1st Avenue Basics
3/6/81 Amtrak
5 Ways Of Saying The Same Thing
About Photography
Against Meaning
Alberta
Alice's Brilliance
All Wars Are Holy
And In Her Memory God Knows
Architecture
At Home
Attempt To Spell, Incantate And Annoy
Au Bout Du Temps
Ballad Of The Typist
Belligerence
The Best Side Of Me
Bi-lingual
Biographical Notes
Blues For Cassanova
Body Blues
Books
Breakfast Elegy
A Brief (remembered) Histoire Of Rejection
Casino Pierre
Casting
Center Piece
Christmas In New York
Circle Jerk
Cohere Britannia
Comrade Past & Mister Present
A Cook In Hell
Crossed Hands
The Crucial Has Been Named After The Cross The Hissing Cross
De Natura Rerum
Dear Editors
Dear Masoch
Debts
Demands Of Exile
Designs
The Differences
The Discovery Of Prayer
Dollar Air
Don't Wait For Me
Dream (1)
Dream (2)
Dream Dogs
Drizzle Off The Ocean
Drowning Another Peasant Inquisition
Early Fix
Election
En Passant
End Games
Epitaph (2)
Ethnic Jammies
Eugenio Montale In California
Every Tie
A Face
Face Portrait
Faith Relearned
Fascination
Fear
The First Icon With Gun
Food
For Marg So She Could Fuck Again
For Thom Gunn
A Francis Ponge
From A Trilogy Of Birds
The Gambling Phoenix
A Game
Getting There
The Ghouls Of Candlemas
Gifts Of Percussion
Gist
The Goldrush
Good Morning
The Good Spirit
A Good Thing When I See One
Grammar
A Grammar
Here
History
The History Of The Growth Of Heaven (1)
The History Of The Growth Of Heaven (2)
The Holy Grail
Honesty Can't Be Encouraged In Individuals. It Must
Hop Scotch
Horse Power
Howdy
A Human Touch Misunderstood
The Hymn Of Pan The Flower
I Visit Brooklyn With A Queen In Mind
Igni Natura Renovatur Integra (nature Is Completely Renewed)
The Imagination Of Necessity
Imported Days
In Praise Of The New Russian Writers
In The Supermarket
The Indecent Assumptions, The Slaughter Songs
The Inner Source
Intention
The Introduction
Invitation To A Molecular Feast
Irony As Nursery
It Takes Joy To Listen And It Is Inspiring Being Listened
Jingling The Cookery
Junk Dawn, Nyc
Junk Mail
The Lady Painter
Late Night, San Francisco
A Leafy Angel
Leaves Of Nerves
Les Fleurs Du Cinema
Letter To Ezra Pound
The Licence To Carry A Gun
The Life On Film Of St. Theresa
Long Door
Looks From Money
Love & The Documents
The Love Of A Coat
Love Poem
'man' And 'woman,' These Are Horrid Words, They Annoy Me
Manifesto
The Marriage Of Insult And Injury
Matinee
Memoria Voraciae Simplex
Mmemogasoline
Model Work
Momentary Bafflement With Return Home At Dawn
The Monk
More About Poems
Moss
Music
Music
My Next Book
Near Sonnet
The New Gazette
New York
Night Of A Faun
Not A Pot To Piss In (my Life As A Pot)
Note
November 6, 1984
October 17
October 19
Ode To Curiosity
Ode To Laryngitis
Old Cities
Old Photo
On An Industrial Ruin
On Organization
On Translation
The Operations Of Desire
Opium For Archie Anderson
Opium For Britt Wilkie
Orbital Complexion
The Origin Of Electricity
Paper On Humor
The Park
Partiti Sunt Vestimenta Mea Miserunt Sortem Contra Me
Pastoral
The Penal Cavalry
A Petite Histoire Of Red Fascism
Petite Madeleine
Piano & Everything Nice
Poem For Kyra
Poetry
Poetry Paper
A Point
The Police
Politics
Power
A Programme For The Double Barrel Life When It Hits
The Question Of Personnel
Rain
Remembrance Of My Forgotten Skinniness
Reverse
Reverse
Roto: How The Bourgeoisie Dream
Russia Or The Weakness Of Photography
Sadness Unhinged
San Francisco For Whomever
Sarrasin's Wealth Song
Saturnian Dilemma
School Daze
Sea Sickness
Second Letter To Junk Jeannee Of Nyc
Secret Training
Seeing Out Of The Sub
Selavie
A Serious Morning
Shop
Silence
The Sin Of Wanting A New Refrigerator
Slot-o-topia
Snail Sail
Some Days
Souls Looking For Bodies
Space Souffle
Star Book
The Status Of The Monk
Staying With It
A Still
Still Life
Stock Report
Stupor At The End Of May
Sunday Sermon
Talismanic Ceremony For Lucian, March 9, 1971, Intersection
Telegram
Telyric
Testing. Testing
Tete-a-tete
Tetrachlorine
There Is An Orange Rotting On The Table
Thieves, Seasons
A Thing
The Threat
Three Types Of Loss
To My Heart
To The Virgin As She Now Stands To The Monk After A Beatles
Toward The End Of 1969
Traffic
Trains
The Travels Of A Vigilante
The Urges
Us
Virgin Mule
Volcanic Dirge & Co.
War & Peace
The West Is The Best And The Future Is Near
When Lightning Struck, I
When Lightning Struck, Ii
Why Paint
Why Write
Winter In Istanbul
Wishes
'the Woods' At Midnight
Work
The Work & The Labor
Working For Profit
The Worst Poems Make The Best Poems
Xerox The Spirit And Be Well
Y Un Cancion Por E
The Yes Log
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Black Sparrow Press; First Edition edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574230131
• ISBN-13: 978-1574230130
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,691,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrei Codrescu (codrescu.com) was born in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania. His first poetry book "License to Carry a Gun" won the Big Table Poetry award. He founded Exquisite Corpse: a Journal of Books & Ideas (corpse.org), taught literature and poetry at Johns Hopkins University, University of Baltimore, and Louisiana State University where he was MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English. He is a regular commentator on NPR's All Things Considered since 1983, has received a Peabody Award for writing and starring in the film "Road Scholar. In 1989 he returned to his native Romania to cover the fall of the Ceausescu regime for NPR and ABC News, and wrote "The Hole in the Flag: an Exile's Story of Return and Revolution." He is the author of books of poetry, novels, essays; the most recent are "The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess," (2009) "The Poetry Lesson" (2010) and "whatever gets you through the night: a story of sheherezade and the arabian entertainments" (2011), all published by Princeton University Press.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars astonishing, May 17, 2002

By 

Bob Swain "Seattle" (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alien Candor: Selected Poems, 1970-1995 (Paperback)

For anyone who loves Codrescu's prose, try and tackle his poetry. I have read all of his prose, but find that his poetry is actually the most memorable, and astounding. He has a quickness in his prose, but he is trying to remember to be reader friendly. His poetry moves at the speed of light (or faster, which I know is impossible), and yet balances delicate phrasing, odd tangents, brilliant structure, it is always funny as heck, and finally, deep in a way that some of his shorter prose especially doesn't bother to be. His poetry is like that of a great religious saint for our time -- half-Hermes, and half-Einstein. I love it! He's that bizarre oddity -- a second language poet who is so astonishing in a second language as to be more fluent than most of our very capable poets. Gee whiz, read this book and struggle with it as I have -- you will not feel sad ever again. He is probably the most important living poet in the dada-surrealism lineage, and yet he has crossed over and taken up a kind of Charles Olson-esque study of real places and cities. Dazzling, and unlikely to ever be repeated in this language, Codrescu is our greatest cultural resource, and his poetry is the heart of his heartening project.