Fragile Replacements [Paperback]

William Allegrezza (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0979411904 | ISBN-13: 978-0979411908 | Publication Date: July 1, 2007 | Edition: 1st

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS explores the way we live through language, experiencing births, deaths, and rebirths through it, but the book also examines how our language is filled, controlled, and crafted by our societies. Two long poems surround and provide context for reading shorter lyrics in the middle section.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Allegrezza's poetic canvas-of-choice is the lyric, and his lyrical investigations frequently appear to evolve or grow. . . from an imagination fueled by found language fragments and theory-singed excesses. This particular poet's capacity to create resonant, "deep" images is extraordinary. --Clayton Couch

There is something about the flow in Allegrezza's poems that I quite like, the way they simply move one step at a time down the page almost intuitively. Really, it's the leaps between lines that impress; almost ghazal-like down the page, jumping from line to line to line in seeming disconnect. --rob mclennan

About the Author

William Allegrezza teaches and writes from his base in Chicago. His poems, articles and reviews have been published in several countries including the U.S., Holland, the Czech Republic and Australia, as well as in several online journals. He is the editor of Moria Poetry, a journal dedicated to experimental poetry and poetics, and the editor-in-chief of Cracked Slab Books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 116 pages
• Publisher: Meritage Press; 1st edition (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979411904
• ISBN-13: 978-0979411908
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,204,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Molding thoughts and emotions like a bird in flight, December 12, 2009

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fragile Replacements (Paperback)

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS is an elegant collection of poems by the very gifted William Allegrezza, a poet from Chicago whose influence is being felt by his students and admirers of fine contemporary poetry both here and in Europe. This particular book, published in 2007 may be difficult to find but the rewards for those persistent in searching for copies will by amply rewarded.

Not only are Allegrezza's thoughts, fleeting concepts that seem born of fragile air so easily do they take flight on the page, original and perfectly molded into the poetic form, they are also made visually beautiful in the way he places his poems on the printed page. Reading both his long poems and short moments of distilled imagery and passion is much like listening to a poetry reading: his spacing of phrases and words on the page allow moments for breathing, for reflection on the at times profound references he is suggesting. His 41 page poem 'Go-between' superimposes fragments from Dante's 'Vita Nuova', incorporating these fragments in a subtle manner that invests the poem with a sense of connectedness to the past while spinning extraordinary ideas like ether in the atmosphere. In the long poem "Gathering Forces' Allegrezza takes leaping risks in the combination of typeface and font size to jolt the eye into following his sparsely placed bursts of inspiration.

But when the poet simply captures a moments in a short poem the impact is visceral as in 'uses'

someday we'll manage to find
the yes or no
among the scattered bits of an
otherwise useless symphony
and there waiting
will be the last
survivors of the great war
on park benches
discussing the end of
human life as though it's
nothing special
as though our concepts
rely only on our concepts
and we are not really
flowers thrown up through
brackish ground in a
chamber of death.

Or in 'surface'

i imagine your skin
under mine
as fire crackles
and lights dim.

William Allegrezza's works belong in the library of all those who find restoration in the poetry of our contemporary poets. He is a gifted craftsman. Grady Harp, December 09

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Abstract and Detached, December 31, 2009

By 

Karl W. Nehring (Ostrander, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fragile Replacements (Paperback)

I won this book as a Goodreads giveaway and have expended some effort in reading and re-reading the poetry contained within. Although my initial reaction to this book was that the poetry was simply too abstract and detached from ordinary experience to communicate effectively, I pressed on. In the end, however, I simply found myself unable to relate to the author's use of language. Although there were a few phrases that caught my attention and stimulated my imagination, they were few and far between. By and large, then, this was not an enjoyable read. Your mileage may vary.