Corvus [Paperback]

Anselm Hollo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1995

A new collection from the respected poet and translator.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ironic in-jokey, post-beat hipster and quietly beautiful lyricist, avant-gardist Hollo (Outlying Districts) graciously draws readers to his work in these poems through both the copious notes supplied with many of them and the gently funny, probing tone assumed throughout. The opening poem "1991," an elegy to his sister, moves in a moment from dark reflection, "At the rites we think of the old days when belief/ made words reach the dead/ a resonance / gone," to light, "OK Sis/ now of no fixed address in the kingdom of Dis/ Miz Ubi Sunt," never failing to carry us along. Hollo often quotes, invokes or directly addresses the poets of his waning generation (Ed Sanders, Robert Creeley, the late Ted Berrigan) or plays himself off poets of all ages and languages, many of whom (Yevtushenko, Brecht, Allen Ginsberg) he has translated into English or Finnish. His preoccupations with literature are woven into reflections in which we spot our more articulate selves; never trite or off-balance, these are poems that sustain.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

& Time Trots By
1991
And
As Leaves Sweep Past
At Evenfall
At This Point In L' Histoire
Beginning & Ending With Lines From Christina Rossetti
Blue Ceiling
Blue March '91
Born Today
Canto Arastra
Chicago
Fair Poetry Eats Trembling Matter
Family Of Cave Bears
The First Jazz Age (or Oh No Not Another E.m. Forster Movie)
From The Helliad
Gods Walked Animals Talked
Hoka Hey
In The Music Composed By Nutritious Algae
In The Old Biograph
In The Raging Balance
Inhabited Eyes
Kindly Water Other Level
Lit. Group History
Not A Form At All But A State Of Mind: 1-12
Not A Form At All But A State Of Mind: Lines From Ted:
Not A Form At All But A State Of Mind: Pterodactyls
Not A Form At All But A State Of Mind: Reviewing The Tape
Not A Form At All But A State Of Mind: Villonelles
Note Found On Meditator
Now On To Ghazal Gulch
O Keats Where Is Thy Sting
Pounces
Proposal
Q & A
Questions
Sardanapalian Surf
Schiller's Rotting Apples
Seven Years Short Of A Hundred
Si, Si, E.e.
Small Door At Far End
Swing High Swing Woe
Three For Ed Sanders
A Town Dedicated To The Pursuit Of Fitness & Inner Peace
A Valentine
West Is Left On The Map
Why There Is A Cat Curfew In Our House
The Word Thing
Words For Joe Cardarelli
Wrong Channel
Ws That Really A Sonnet
Some Greeks
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Here is a poet capable of teaching the curious how to read what some would still call avant-garde poetry. These poems are snips and snaps of contemporary life run together with a taut gathering stitch and played off against particular moments and figures in the history of ideas, literature, and politics. This dexterous and often humorous interplay creates moments of surprise, as in "Why There Is A Cat Curfew In Our House." The poem, an energetic narrative about a family of raccoons coming in through the cat door late at night, ends with a wry nod to the desire for more: "& if I were a Victorian poet there'd be a moral/but late in my century all I can say/is that she did of course remind me of my mother." Notes at the back help unlock the references for those who are not content to just go along for the ride.
Copyright © 1996, Boston Review. All rights reserved. -- From The Boston Review

Hollo's poems are evocative and hard-hitting, blending humor and candid observation in a collection which will appeal to many with its familiar images: "A town dedicated to the pursuit/of fitness & inner peace/says the headline so that's where we are/that's why they're building/fifty new houses/right next door. -- Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Coffee House Press (November 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156689039X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566890397
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 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: #1,530,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry by one of the best, October 6, 2011

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This review is from: Corvus (Paperback)

Now that Ginsberg and Creeley and many others are no longer with us, Anselm Hollo is the senior spokesperson for the Beat and West Coast Renaissance. And he has always had a special voice of his own--anti-Establishment but never fanatical or humorless. He is always a fun read, and CORVUS shows him at his best.