Flying Blind: Poems [Hardcover]

Sharon Bryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1996

A lexicon of poems on language and death.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A brilliant collection of poems, Bryan's book reveals a carefully constructed bridge of dignity between life's tragedies and its more humorous idiosyncrasies. Bryan studies the thoughts that lie hidden behind our common experiences, puts them on the table, and says, Here you are. A wise book full of the author's love of language and all its veils and party horns, the secret and the celebratory. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

The table of contents begins with "Abracadabra" and ends with "You Are Here," and the absence of a poem beginning with Z (and a few other letters in between) illustrates Bryan's view of language as an endlessly flexible tool to stave off final things, especially the last thing?death. In these inventive meditations on mortality and oblivion and speech, Bryan (Objects of Affetion) works through two themes about language: first, it always falls short of capturing the intractability of the world and our experience of it; second, it's how we know we are alive. Words "keep the world/ just out of reach." In tightly constructed three- and four-line stanzas, she searches for meaning beyond definition. Philosophical even when specific, these poems are playful. Sometimes, Bryan gets too caught up in her own game, as in "Ode to the OED" or "Subjunctive," which may make readers wish she had taken more note of her early observation: "because one word// leads to an other, it's easy/ to get carried away." But most of the time, Bryan?a recipient of two NEA fellowships and winner of the Academy of American Poets Prize and a Discovery Award from the Nation?strikes a fine balance between rigorous conceptual conceit and the soul's lust for meaning.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 72 pages
• Publisher: Sarabande Books (July 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964115166
• ISBN-13: 978-0964115163
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,184,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain", October 24, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Robert Keim) (Brockport, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying Blind: Poems (Hardcover)

I usually take particular interest in the title poem of a collection. Sometimes it completely encapsulates the poet's point of view--sometimes it ties together several loose themes within the book. At eighteen lines (narrow lines at that) "Flying Blind" is one of the shortest poems in the book. It is short and tight, with monosyllabic words dominating the poem Each word like an attention getting clap--especially in the first line, "We can't quite see". The harsh vowel sounds give power and directness. Larger words come later in the poem as the ideas become more complex and abstract in lines such as "to serenade the universe". "Flying Blind" explains that we know the world and the universe only through our words, and that as we "fly" through it all we only really have our language to guide us. The voice of the narrator is speaking with the authority of a director of a production, speaking from offstage to explain the principle idea behind the scene. With the exception of "Frankly", "Trimmings" and "What Biology is all About" it is hard to say exactly where the narrator is in this collection of poems. In fact, it is almost like a "Where's Waldo" book--she is usually in the position of one in a crowd, rarely referring to herself as an individual. It feels as though she is one of us (sometimes speaking for us) referring to "we" "us" and "our" as a collective humanity, and when "you" is used, it refers to all of us, as though we are being addressed by this Poet/Teacher conglomerate who is sharing wisdom. An example of this conglomerate voice is in the poem "Foreseeing". The audience is not inclusive of the narrator, although she is present in the form of voice. While there is no "I" in this poem, there is a sort of omniscient "eye", one that is not present in all of the poems, but in a few (such a as in "Beholden", "Bemused", "Minutiae" and "Theory". In these poems there is "you". Her omniscient voice in "Foreseeing" has a strange sense of personal knowledge. The voice is one of experience, one that is intimate with age. The poem made me think of writing on a wall, perhaps carved into marble--speaking a truth to us amongst the statues--perhaps like proverbs deemed absolute and universal. What does "we" and "us" do? As I was reading these poems I found myself buying into the ideas presented, and I was able to relate to the narrator in a strangely personal (strange because she seems so impersonal) way. I found myself thinking "Oh, she's one of us", sparing me from a large condescending tone explaining how the world works(like the Wizard of Oz). I feel as though I am on Sharon's team with all the "we" togetherness, as though she is the woman sitting next to me who happened to speak for us all. I have to wonder what her purpose for distancing herself from her poetry is-- and what purpose that serves for her in the process. I wonder if she feels a distance between herself and her poems, or perhaps a fear of intimacy with her inner self (it could also be she was simply trying to be different). Her focus is largely outward, with a leaning for the appreciation of words themselves--as if the words actively shape her reality rather than words describing her reality. She seems to have fun with it, as seen in the poems paying tribute to prefixes and suffixes (i.e. "Be-" and "-Esque"), coming to a point with the cliché ridden rhythmical poem "Sweater Weather: A Love Song to Language". I did not like the poem all that much, on the surface it is unoriginal and against the norms of avoiding clichés in poetry. However, I commend her for taking a risk with this poem. There is a recognized power behind clichés, and this poem is a bunch of snippets of emotion delicately arranged. The fact that the poems are alphabetically arranged further demonstrates her priorities on letters and language. While most poets tediously arrange their collections based on emotion, topic, and general feel, Sharon Bryan has gone even more basic-- the alphabet. The alphabet being the roots of all written and spoken words, without which there would be no emotional conveyance--no transference of thoughts and ideas through speech, writing, or poetry. Sharon Bryan's distance from her work makes a point--that point being the importance of language. Is it a coincidence that that is also the point of the title poem? I don't think so. I highly reccomend this collection.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun and elegant book by a first-rate poet., August 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Flying Blind: Poems (Hardcover)

Sharon Bryan has a superb feel for words and a distinct original way of looking at things. All of the poems here are worth reading, and many of them are brilliant.