Bardo [Hardcover]

Suzanne Paola (Author)

Book Description

Series: Brittingham Prize in Poetry | Publication Date: September 24, 1998

Suzanne Paola fuses the Tibetan bardo journey with Western epic tradition in ways that are both comic and harrowing. Bardo is the intermediate state after death when the soul wanders through the heavens and the hells while trying to avoid rebirth into samsara—the realm of the material—and to instead reach nirvana. Paola presents a series of this life’s bardo experiences: drug use, the refused birth of infertility, the social implications of the female body, even a trip to the fantastic “afterworld” of pop culture. Bardo’s journey travels to a place where “to be human is to be part god, / part sickness, / always wondering which is which.”

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Bardo is Tibetan for the Buddhist state of in-between, when the soul is between death and rebirth. According to Paola's prolog, the soul is tempted away from nirvana into reincarnation, synonymous with suffering. A reformed heroin addict, Paola has passed from the bardo of unremembering into the pain of consciousness, and her considerable descriptive powers are infused with both pain and delight. Of her young niece's pink bedroom, she writes: "Girl/ colors, blended of blood & milk./ A sprawled doll, & through the window/ fat, voluptuous cloud above the sea." "Columbines" is a short, moving piece about adult remorse for the mistakes of a younger self. Judging from the vague details offered, Paolo has managed to emerge, butterfly-like, from a life of drugs and infertility to become a professor, mother, and author of this third book of poetry. Unfortunately, the fine writing here is weakened by an obsessive self-involvement that wears on the reader's sympathies.?Ellen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine Law Lib., New York
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Briseis: 1
Briseis: 2
Briseis: 3
Briseis: 4
Briseis: 5
Briseis: 6
Briseis: 7
Christ In The World Of Matter
Columbines
Conception
Deus Abconditus
Driftwood Beach: Theme & Variations
Epithelial
Fall Landscape, With Empty Places & Sound
Halfway To The Afterlife
In The Realm Of Neither Notions Nor Not-notions
In The Realm Of The Hungry Ghosts
Infertility
Mistaking Opiates For The Clear Light
Narcissus: Variations
Pentecost
Prayer To Seal Up The Wombdoor
Red Girl
Salmonberries
Seeing It All As The Bardo
Suite For The Child That Refuses To Come
Tenure At Forty
Through Glass
Vishnu Savannah
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (September 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299160106
• ISBN-13: 978-0299160104
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,442,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning., August 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bardo (Hardcover)

These poems were amazing, disturbing, evocative. Phrases and images have stayed with me, and a few times I have had to go back and read a certain poem just to touch them again. The recurrent themes of being and not-being, of what it means to be fertile and not-fertile -- BARDO is a gift, and I was fortunate enough to come across an early copy.