Genius Loci (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

~ Alison Deming (Author)
Key Phrases: Theory of Hovenweep

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Attentive, discursive, given to forests and canyons, Deming's poetry and prose about wild places, plants and animals has earned her a reputation among nature writers, especially in the American West: "So much of the world is broken/ and I want to be part of its healing," her third volume of verse explains. Starting with "ground/ hallowed by scat and spit/ and pillage of wolf," examining "pearly eggs of apple snails/ beaded onto pickerelweed," Deming (Science and Other Poems) writes at length about camping and hiking, trail beds and streams, then turns her attentions in part two from Arizona (where she lives and teaches) to New York, Hawaii and Provincetown. The volume's third part collects short poems about romantic longing and about public history; the more ambitious title sequence, with which Deming concludes, describes what she saw on a trip to the Czech Republic, from modern Prague through the legacy of the Holocaust to the "swirly acres of yellow-headed sunflowers" along that nation's rural routes. Deming may pay too high a price for clarity, and she can repeat herself when she strays from her descriptive strengths, but this book should please admirers of Mary Oliver, along with any other readers who seek serious, sincere thought about the natural world.
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Product Description

From a poet and essayist whose writing about nature has won her comparisons with Gary Snyder and Terry Tempest Williams comes a new collection that offers further evidence of her ability to trace the intersections of the human and nonhuman worlds. The title poem is a lyrical excavation of the city of Prague, where layers of history, culture and nature have accumulated to form "a genius loci"—a guardian spirit.

From "Genius Loci"

Return to a place where nothing in particular can be seen
to explain why you return, nothing you can name,
though you can touch the memory of the landscape—

linden trees in a hedgerow, cut wheatfield, ruins of the
longhouse,
rolling meadow of sunflowers blooming, the musk of
their oil,
contained heat.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First edition. edition (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143035207
• ISBN-13: 978-0143035206
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,739,308 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A finely tuned sensibility looks at the natural world, July 27, 2006

By	juniper (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This is the third collection of poems from Alison Deming, a writer who combines science and art in ways that few others seem able to do. There is much to be enjoyed here, especially for those who care about the natural world and our troubled relationship to it. I read this collection while camping in the wilderness and felt that her poems very much enriched my experience. Overall, this is a very fine collection. Incidentally, if you have never read Deming's work, don't miss her set of poems called "Monarchs." It is superb.