Customer Reviews

The Monster Loves His Labyrinth

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yugoslavia-born U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic presents The Monster Loves His Labyrinth: Notebooks, an amalgamation of his notebook entries over the course of many years. The observations, insights, and inspirational gleanings are not themselves poetry per se, but rather the stuff from which great poetry (or great prose) can be wrought - or perhaps a simple source of thoughtful contemplation, ideal for whenever one has a few minutes to spare. "We call 'street wise' someone who knows how to look, listen, and interpret the teeming life around him. To walk down a busy city block is a critical act. Literature, aesthetics, and psychology all come into play."

This collection of short sentences or phrases contains thoughts of Yugoslavian born, poet, Simic and quotes from others on poetry, being Simic and being human, in insomnia, and religion. Some examples:
* I explained by accent to a doctor by telling him that I was raided by a family of deaf-mutes.
* I'm a member of that minority which refuses to be part of any officially designated minority.
* Birds sing to remind us that we have a soul.
* All my life I strove to make a small truth out of an infinity of errors.
* Cioran writes "God is afraid of man . . . . Man in a monster, and history has proved it.",
* How do you know the other? By being madly in Love.
* A poem is an invitation to a voyage. As in life we travel to see fresh sights.
* In a zoo, I noticed many animals who had a fleeting resemblance to me.
* Faulkner somewhere defined poetry as the whole history of the human heart on a head of a pin.
* Insomnia. A lifelong dereliction of duty. A form of rebellion against the whole of eternity. A spit in its eye, as it were.

This is an excellent book about poetry and Charles Simic's views on poetry, life and the world. Simic is perceptive beyond the normal individual and puts his thoughts into sharp and funny relief. For those who are poets, this is an inspiring book that will help you reach beyond your usual assumptions into a realm of free thought and feeling.
James Cox, Author of Hiding Behind the Elephant's Smile: Prose Poems and Poetic Prose