Inverted Fire [Paperback]

Alice Friman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Poetry. "Almost no one is good at both short and long poems, but Alice Friman is. Her poems 'Turnip' and 'Cherries' have sharp language, imagination and alert observation. INVERTED FIRE is good, a must" --Leo Connellan.

Editorial Reviews

Review

40 Below
Angel Jewell
Archery Lesson
The Bat
Birthday In Autumn
The Blue Oranda
Callahan's Bride
Cardiology
Cherries
Eurydice's Lot
Eve
Evening In Provence
Flight To Australia, 1989
The Good News
Hiking Around Jenny Lake
In Neutral
In That Apartment, In That City
In This Night's Rain
Introduction To April
Invitation To A Minor Poet
Journal Entry For Late October
Letter To My Husband
Letter To The Children
Light Years Away
Looking For The Parts
Love In The Time Of Drought, 1988
Night Drive
Northwest Flight #1173
On Loving A Younger Man
On Perfection
Ophelia
Pigeon Drop
Pockets
Rachael Valentine
Recovery
Riddle
Rubber Band
Shadow
Shame
The Shirt
Snake Hill
Stars
Sunflowers
Suppose, Suddenly
Tonight
Turnip
Unposted Letter
A Walk At The End Of The Century
Walking In Holcomb Gardens
Watching Trees At Steepletop
Plums
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

In a poem on the death of a friend's daughter, Alice Friman observes "how each heart-cracked moment/ arrives with its attendant image" ("Rachel Valentine"). The fifty-one poems of Inverted Fire collect as many such moments, the attendant images arriving in language as carefully exact as it is reluctant to insist or declaim. And at the heart of each poem lies what poetry always discovers when its attempts to speak the unsayable succeed: enigma always and everywhere. We are, these poems suggest, puzzles inhabiting and surrounded by mysteries. None of which, finally, can be explained but can be observed, wondered about, delineated, reported. It is not death [she says] but "life that is uncomfortable,/ sets the heart to ache, makes us,/ like a ten-month pregnancy,/ strain the confines of even good intentions" ("Flight to Australia"). But what these poems asseverate is that life is larger than these particulars, and that what it means and why it matters depend upon us. -- Indiana Review, Fall 1997

In the first part of the book, entitled Libra, Friman illustrates, among other elements, the balance between mythology and modern day images, dark and light, and love and separation. Friman's imagery is a complex marriage of words. The images intensify within each stanza. Each word is an image that fits neatly into the next phrase constructing a certain mood.

In Friman's collection, her major strengths fall in the pleasing arms of her incremental imagery. Strong multivalent imagery that appeals to the reader's pathos is also mixed with humor in this poetic vat to create works that are simultaneously funny and serious. There is verse that touches the commonly suffered paranoia presented in our culture. Friman's poetry becomes a commentary of fears shared in our time.

This collection clearly shows Alice Friman's well-developed craft. It demonstrates a wide scope of style and subject matter. The authentic conversation and presence of the concrete image both ordinary and celestial add to Friman's art. -- Puerto del Sol, Summer 1998

From the Publisher

The title is based on a line from Heraclitus: "stars are bowls of inverted fire." This book of accomplished poems is organized in four sections titled after heavenly bodies or events, but the poems themselves are heavenly only in the sense that the captured moments are universal-and that they impart a certain amount of enjoyment. The first time you read these poems you will note the rhythm and perhaps hear a narrative. The second time you read these poems you will glimpse her meaning. The third and fourth, ad infinitum, you will begin to invest each poem with a meaning of your own, thus making them your poems-your own memories to come back to time and again, as pleasurable as an aging family picture album.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 76 pages
• Publisher: BkMk Press; 1st edition. edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886157073
• ISBN-13: 978-1886157071
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 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: #3,267,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intimate lyrical journey. Profound and wise., June 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Inverted Fire (Paperback)

Alice Friman's newest collection brims with the spherical energy she invokes by the titles with which she chooses to divide her text: Libra, The Moon, Black Hole and Red Shift. Skilled at writing both long and short poems, here she maintains an amazing lyrical balance throughout each section while sometimes using intriguing forms which spring unselfconsciously from the content of the poems themselves. By turns sensual, surprising, arresting and often funny, these poems take us on journeys illuminated by myth, exacting memory, and the close observation of someone attuned to every small nuance of living.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So personal, yet universal, each poem is a rich experience!, March 16, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Greenwood, Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inverted Fire (Paperback)

From the starry sky over Greece, to plane travels, to the moon, to a shirt hanging on the door, Alice Friman covers it all. The language so rich, the imagery so sharp, the reader cannot help but to slide completely into each poem, making the poet's experience his or her own. I promise you will never look at seemingly simple objects in quite the same way! Reading "Inverted Fire" is like a trip to the art museum - after viewing each great piece, you must stand back and let it all soak in. A true pleasure. A must read!