Fathom [Paperback]

Philip Brady (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2007

Poetry. "In poems of spiritual hunger and erotic receptivity, Philip Brady achieves utterance through formal gestures, 'revealing in every form and syllable / a double essence.' The pleasures of FATHOM are literary and sensuous, even when the poems address the events of 9/11. Through rhythmic cadences, 'a murmur rippling in lines', Brady brings the world into focus, 'purr[s] "accord" / into the ear of the continuum'. These are poems to savor as they lodge themselves within us"--Michael Waters. A professor at Youngstown State University adn the NEOMFA program, Philip Brady directs the YSU Poetry Center and Etruscan Press. For kicks, he plays in the New-Celtic band, Brady's Leap.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Philip Brady is a professor of English at Youngstown State University, where he directs the Poetry Center and Etruscan Press. He is the author of three books of poetry, Weal (winner of Ashland Poetry Press's Snyder Prize); Forged Correspondences, (chosen for Ploughshares' Editors' Shelf by Maxine Kumin); and Fathom; and a memoir, To Prove My Blood: A Memoir of Emigrations & the Afterlife. He is the co-editor, with James F. Carens, of Critical Essays on James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. He plays in Brady's Leap, a New-Celtic band which has produced two CDs of original music.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Word Press (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933456728
• ISBN-13: 978-1933456720
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 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: #4,504,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fathom it, if you can, March 10, 2008

By 

birdwalker (Morgantown, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fathom (Paperback)

Philip Brady invites us out of the shallow water, out beyond where we can easily touch bottom, out where the water's deep enough that to know it you must dive.

He's a serious guy in the face of it, but he knows that wit is valuable at all fathoms, and his dark humor illuminates the depths.

I was especially taken with the sequence of "California Sonnets" and the long, astounding poem "The Elsewhere."

5.0 out of 5 stars The thoughtful stanzas evoke the breadth and depth of the human experience, March 4, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: Fathom (Paperback)

Fathom is an anthology of free-verse poetry by Youngstown State University professor and prizewinning poet Philip Brady, addressing events ranging from the September 11th attacks to saying the final farewell to a deceased friend to the wondrous beauty lying dormant in the natural world. The thoughtful stanzas evoke the breadth and depth of the human experience in their resonant and at times sensual flow. "Berkeley": I am thinking of the city of Cata Huyuk, / elder sister of Jericho, nexus / of stone-age trade, shrine of the chthonic / goddess and her fecund, polyandrous / queens. I am pondering the citizens, / innocent of wheels and war, lovers / of cats, skilled in obsidian, / who excarnated their dead for sacred vultures. / As I walk through People's Park watching a suit / angle his head to cradle a cell phone, / I dwell on the ancient metropolis and its fate: / One day without disaster or invasion / the entire population disappeared / as if their souls were carried off by birds.