Buffalo Head Solos [Paperback]

Tim Seibles (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1880834634 | ISBN-13: 978-1880834633 | Publication Date: October 9, 2008 | Edition: 1ST

Poetry. "Reading Tim Seibles reminds me of the Buddhist parable of the burning house: everyone ignores the flames, pretends there is no smoke, no pain, no prospect of death. Or, if there is, it will only happen to someone else, someone in another world. According to these teachings, aversion and attachment are not the greatest barriers to fulfillment; it is indifference that endangers a soul. Not to embrace or confront what is undeniably there but to detach ourselves and retreat. It is precisely this indifference that these poems challenge with lyric insistence - begging, assailing, teasing, affirming. In this mystical, romantic and political collection, Seibles is willing to take a chance, any chance to engage the general malaise of our times. He is a musician of the spirit and of the body, and it is that quality which carries us forward breath by breath, line by line. The journey is oddly enchanting, even transformative"--Nin Andrews.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Reading Tim Seibles reminds me of the Buddhist parable of the burning house: everyone ignores the flames, pretends there is no smoke, no pain, no prospect of death. Or, if there is, it will only happen to someone else, someone in another world (the third world maybe). According to these teachings, aversion and attachment are not the greatest barriers to fulfillment; it is indifference that endangers a soul. Not to embrace or confront what is undeniably there but to detach ourselves and retreat.
It is precisely this indifference that these poems challenge with lyric insistence -- begging, assailing, teasing, affirming. In this mystical, romantic, and political collection, Seibles is willing to take a chance, any chance to engage the general malaise of our times. He is a musician of the spirit and of the body, and it is that quality which carries us forward breath by breath, line by lne. The journey is oddly enchanting, even transformative." --Nin Andrews

About the Author

Tim Seibles is the author of Hammerlock and Hurdy-Gurdy (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1999 and 1992), and Body Moves (Corona Press, 1988). He is a former NEA fellow and has led workshops for Cave Canem -- a retreat for African American writers -- and for the Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Foundation. He lives in Norfolk, Virginia, where he teaches courses for Old Dominion University's English Department and MFA in Writing Program.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Cleveland State U Poetry Center; 1ST edition (October 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880834634
• ISBN-13: 978-1880834633
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 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 (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #945,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Urgent, fearless and necessary, October 29, 2004

By 

Elizabeth Austen (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buffalo Head Solos (Paperback)

"...[T]here are things far worse than speaking out of turn," writes Tim Seibles in the "Open Letter" that begins his fourth full-length collection of poetry. BUFFALO HEAD SOLOS is poetry at its most urgent, fearless and necessary. Again and again he accurately names what ails us:

And still, we keep
turning from the sound

like two-legged animals all buttoned and zipped
unwilling to recognize this tall ladder of bones
to which we cling briefly with our small teeth.

And because we do not see well into the future
because we are busy taking as much as we can get because
money has infected these days with its prolific germ,

what surrounds us looks like forever
but it is not --

from "Ladder"

But Seibles isn't interested in preaching -- at least not in the deadening way we've come to think of it. He sings a wake-up call directly to our cells, summoning us back to our bodies, our voices, our imaginations:

Listen.


We belong to no nation.

One day we will hold the earth
again as if She were a love

nearly lost, Her rainy hair tangled in our hands.

from "Late Shift"

With BUFFALO HEAD SOLOS, Tim Seibles reinvents language daring and delicious enough to carry his songs. In a time when, as he writes in "Really Breathing," "evil wears some really sexy clothes," these poems burn a clear light.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Master of Verse, January 30, 2010

By 

Christian Johnson - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Buffalo Head Solos (Paperback)

Time Seibles is a master of verse, of the image and the line--this work is vintage Seibles, surprising, brilliant, yet simple--fun to read.