Bewitched Playground [Paperback]

David Rivard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000 | ISBN-10: 1555973027 | ISBN-13: 978-1555973025

A kind of "public dreaming" takes place via the music of these poems--a music as likely to visit the long-dead ghosts of the Kwakiutl tribe as Gianni Versace, and as interested in the baby seat of a car as it is in a boxing ring. Building on the critical success of David Rivard's two earlier, award-winning books, Bewitched Playground widens both his emotional aperture and formal range. Rivard calls it "my book of domestic voodoo"--not a book about having a child, but written out of a life touched by a new intimacy, and tuned-in to an unwilled strangeness, a fluctuating gravity.

Here, the unconscious forces of the imagination intersect with the everyday, in a crossroads at the bewitched playground. These stylistically innovative poems are full of the rediscovery that the world teems with "otherness," with freshness and surprise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wild and wildly variable in verse, Rivard (Wise Poison) aims for energy, pleasure and people getting it on. "The facts of the next thirty minutes or years," he insists, "are not like tent pegs pounded into the earth." Often depending on the psychosexual delvings, and on the risky declarations of deep feeling which characterized American poetry in the '60s and '70s (and 20th-century Spanish poetry generally), Rivard's failures can fall flat indeed, doubly cursed by the Beats and by Sensitive Manhood: he writes of "the meek," "If I had a peaceful heart/ I would be as cruel as they are," and ends another poem, "I could change her life forever." Elegies for friends, and some of his poems about dead celebrities ("Jung"; Peruvian poet "Vallejo and bootless Robert Johnson") can memorialize them sensitively and well (one on Versace much less so); most of the poems on a young daughter seem just as deeply felt but less well-made. But when he takes his language more seriously, and his speaker's experience less so, Rivard becomes a terrifically unpredictable writer. "Question for the Magic Hour" detects "A wind that's/ distracted, & vague,/ snifflyA/ like a rabbit, or a sedated professor." "I refuse to be lonely," a volatile lyric avers, "I will leave like scissors from a storage case." One of the daughter poems flits from her encounter with a "Tsimishian mask" to an outdoor perch on a guitar case, ending on a long view of an outdated bumper sticker. Such vivid notation on a bevy of experiencesAsome quite common, some bizarre to begin withAmake this playground worth visiting. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"What kind of grace rushes through these poems? It smells, it lucidly perceives reality, it instantly rearranges seven different levels. It dissolves time. It rubs on and changes light, feeds your well of memory. It makes one joyful, humble, aware, and richer for images one does not forget. It leaves me with a desire to be permanently friends with this mysterious kind of grace."--Tomaz Salamun

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555973027
• ISBN-13: 978-1555973025
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,927,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stylistically innovative poetry., June 6, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bewitched Playground (Paperback)

In David Rivard's poetry, the unconscious forces of the imagination intersect with life's everyday details. His stylistically innovative poems reflect the discovery that the world teems with "otherness", freshness, and surprise. Lucky Slaves: In the city, meanwhile,/the tenants come home,/the subletters & co-op owners,/dwellers beneath/slate mansard roofs & heating ducts,/they arrive one/by one, that being their way,/one by hopeless/unimportant/hopeful one -- slaves --/but luck slaves,/like the last of those last few Israelites,/they who wandered sighing & distracted/over a path/the Lord of the parted Red Sea had made./Soon the suppers/of America/will start to be prepared./First the paring of onions,/and then the frying./On the forehead of the city the sun/is setting, the brow/in flames, the brain doing a cool/coppery burn. But the floor/beneath our feet remains/firm. It will not/be turned/to ash.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars welcome to the playground, April 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bewitched Playground (Paperback)

I have always admired David Rivard's way of looking at the world around him as a way of illuminating the "big questions" like who are we and where are we going. He observes life from a different angle, noticing the small gestures and odd moments that make us human. In Bewitched Playground Rivard's insights are there, but I was also struck by the heart in these new poems. Rivard writes of a daughter being born and I can only wonder if that event has helped shape the playfulness of some of these poems. His observations are keen and the voice of these poems is that of someone about to tell you a great story