Column of Silence [Paperback]

Joyce Nower (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2001

Title: Column of Silence; poetry, 50 pages. The poems are mostly lyrics and range from formal to free verse. Some of the poems have been published in a variety of periodicals, such as Taproot, New Works Review, GR Review, Grasslands Review, and Slant, but most are new.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joyce Nower has been writing poetry, essays and reviews, and teaching for many years, and is one of the founders (at San Diego State University) of the first Women's Studies Program in the nation. She has organized many poetry readings, art shows, community programs, and political events. During June of 1999, she presented lectures on contemporary American poetry at Sichuan Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University, and Yanan University in the People's Republic of China. She holds a Third Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo and is also a student of Tibetan White Crane Tai Chi.

Product Details

• Paperback: 50 pages
• Publisher: Avranches Pr (February 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962588652
• ISBN-13: 978-0962588655
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 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: #10,335,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Column of Silence a great read, speaks volumes, timeless, March 17, 2001

By 

Tikvah Feinstein (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Column of Silence (Paperback)

With her second collection, Poet Joyce Nower - squarely in the middle of it, contemplates life, death, the past, present and future. Her poems span the globe from the colossal ruins of ancient Greece, to Mexico, England, France and to childhood memories in "Peconic Bay, Long Isand", (pg 1) and "Pure Pleasure," (pg 3). She confronts in a moving poem, "The Angel of Death," (pg 4) her mother's death on a bathroom floor, understatedly listing personal effects - what a life has come to. "...You sensed her coming. On the Baby Grand/ signs of last minute life were ordered:/ a marriage certificate, bonds in the open/ strong box, a list of scattered possessions,/ photos of Dad ..." In the poem "Column of Silence," (pg. 24) Ms. Nower rebells against ideas, shaping history by thought and opts instead to feel. She so totally blends into it: "No more 'is this where...?' 'In what year...?'/ Only sit in the cafe, alone, like the column/ of silence carved in the plaza by a hand that no longer matters/ and hear in the shade uncontrollable voices ..." Later in the same poem, she imagines the chiseled god before her: "...flow over the arms of the young bride, along tucks/ at the breasts and the fluted hem of her chiton/ as she takes from her jewelry case a bracelet,/ almost to clasp it around her wrist, almost to rise - ..." In the poem "Ephesus," which won for Ms. Nower 3rd place in Taproot Literary Review's 10th Edition, she blends herself into the future. "I would prefer to be a statue/ dug up a thousand years from now./ I would look better, instead of a/ scatter of tibia and femur..." "Oh, to embarrass a government/ a thousand years from now -/ languidly sprawled down an embankment/ my ruins lolling into white-blue bays/ stroked by Mediterranean waves." The collection offers quite a trip, not to be missed.