Lusions (Grove Press Poetry Series) [Hardcover]

James Ragan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0802116035 | ISBN-13: 978-0802116031 | Publication Date: March 18, 1997 | Edition: 1st

In Lusions, the internationally acclaimed poet James Ragan casts his eye on modern and ancient history in poems that put an original spin on the progression of the world. These are lyrical and witty poems about change and cultural evolution from an intellectual and insightful mind. Ragan explores humankind's cultural and mythical identities - from Prehistory, in which he muses on the "Birth of God (from an Early Photograph)" and "The Pebble Culture," when our distant ancestors turned "violence into culture," to the New World, where he covers such topics as Tuzla, the inner city, and the construction of a city mall. Once he catches up to the Premillennium, Ragan's poems are overwhelmed by a return to nature, perhaps the only antidote to our electronic age. Through brilliant wordplay and striking images, Lusions invents a mysterious and imaginative discourse on the point where the past and the present meet and the impact they have on a fragmented culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The poems in this volume traverse time. From prehistory and the "Birth of God (from an Early Photograph)" to the construction of a suburban mall, Ragan is searching for reason and sense, in the flow of events, the passage of days. "It was to be a simple creation. An exercise at most/ of mischief, to play at quarks like building blocks,/ replenished and diminished, and by its cycle/ a god might gain domain. We would call it nature." Once God creates human nature, the poems collect moments of life, from a gazelle's "Birthing a Daughter into the Holocene Epoch," to man's simple but never-ending wars against his lawn. The rewards are many here. "Let all buckets fill, all loss be light./ I saw two girls weaving rainbows in their eyes,/ and daughtering in me their dreams, I grew/ astonished by all conception,/ the frail grandeur of life." Recommended for serious poetry collections.?Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Anniversary Of A Roman Arch
Antiques
The Astonishment Of Living
August 19, 1991
Beckett Had Only One Student
The Birth Of God (from An Early Photograph)
Birthing A Daughter Into The Holcene Epoch
Blueprints For A Mall
The Board Of Selectmen
The Burghers Of Calais, 1347
The Buttered Toast Mystery
Delacroix And The Organ At St. Sulpice
Delivering Newspapers Past The Cemetery Dead
The Dogs Of China
Dreaming Of Flood Of Conscience
Epitaph To The Plumber Of Westminster Abbey
The Eskimo's Twelve Expressions Of White
For Three Twelve-year-old Homeboys
History
The Holy Ghost As Eighth Grader
An Immigrant Playing Violin In The Neighbor Wood
The Invention Of Horsebrass
Lines Of Succession
Lusions
Madame Rimsky-korsakov: Peinture At The Musee D'orsay
The Margin Of Error
The Mayor Boils A Speck Of Dust
Myth And The Higher Orders Of Abstraction
On Mowing A Lawn
The Pebble Culture
Perizoma: On Striking Michelangelo's Signature From The Piet
The Pit Fall
Poem To The Photograph Of A Found Daughter
The Refugees Of Tuzla
The Reindeer Age
Rilke On The Conveyor Belt At Los Angeles International
The Tombs Of Pechora
Two Kinds Of Darkness
The Vineyards At Bar Sur Aube
The Warehouse Of Apostrophe S's
The Water Wheel
We Stop The Universe With Study
The Willow Father
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Hardcover: 85 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st edition (March 18, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802116035
• ISBN-13: 978-0802116031
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,078,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's all in the eye of the beholder!, March 28, 2001

By 

Dr. Ron Ribble - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lusions (Grove Press Poetry Series) (Hardcover)

Reading James Ragan is no easy thing but as a master of languages he challenges you to do that. The imagery is intense and takes so many twists and turns one is constantly reframing the mind to keep up...to follow the tale. The secret is to read the title, take a moment to reflect and go from there. It was in that fashion that "Delivering Newspapers Past the Cemetery Dead" came alive to this old paper boy.

Ragan does what I wish more poets would do: size up the world and significant matters about it from his perspective [the only one any of us has a complete grasp of] instead of attempting to dazzle us - as many do - with how he experiences himself and his own turmoil. He does not write about bunions on his bum or bruises on his abused ego.

I am afraid that I can only regard someone who thinks this gifted man [or his poetry] arrogant as someone with an ax to grind. I have had the privilege of meeting and interviewing him. He is down to earth, accommodating, pleasant and as delightful to talk with as he is to read.

My only regret about Lusions is that most everyday readers who would undoubtedly find his topics engrossing will not find reading him an easy thing to do.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lusions, January 9, 2007

By 

Poetry Supporter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lusions (Grove Press Poetry Series) (Hardcover)

The "customer" who reviewed Lusions as "Arrogance Exemplified" obviously did not read the book. There is no poem in it to hint at autobiography or arrogance. Rather, the book presents a much welcomed world view of the cultural development of violence, from pre-history to our contemporary period, broad enough for any reader to connect to it personally. All of Ragan's works that I have read are universal in their dimensions. I strongly recommend that this reviewer let go of what sounds like a personal grudge toward quality literature. I give Lusions my highest recommendation.

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars arrogance exemplefied, January 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Lusions (Grove Press Poetry Series) (Hardcover)

This book typifies this author's arrogance. It seems to me that he is so self-centered that he can not write about things in a the broad context of life, without including his own narrow perspective. A glorified autobiography!