Amazon.com: Primary Trouble: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (9781883689285): Leonard Schwartz, Joseph Donahue, Edward Halsey Foster: Books

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The generic-sounding subtitle is misleading: this collection anthologizes over 60 contemporary American poets (born after 1933) whose work can be described as "avant-garde" or "experimental." More specifically, the poets fall into one of three categories, or some fusion of each: those directly influenced by nontraditional poets published in the 1950s and '60s, like Duncan, Olson and Ashbery (e.g., Diane Di Prima, who writes mosaic-like reconstructed mythologies); the first and second generations of the New York School (such as hip confessionalist Ted Berrigan); and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets (like Michael Palmer, who writes, "There is nothing meaningful about a text"). The collection does little to aid readers who are unfamiliar with these styles, and its inclusiveness (from award winners like Susan Howe to younger poets like Myung Mi-Kim) can be overwhelming, a quality exacerbated by the book's minimalist structure, which presents poems alphabetically by the poets' names, yet without any accompanying commentary or biography (except for a listing of each poet's published works). Nevertheless, the editors' informed and energetic selections?from Andrew Schelling's crystalline interpretation of the Isha Upanishad to Anne Lauterbach's abstract metaphysical explorations?add up to a groundbreaking, even electrifying compendium of avant-garde American poetry.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Explosive Decibel Journeys by Will Alexander
Lightning: Part Ii: Ball Lightning by Will Alexander
The Psychotropic Squalls by Will Alexander
That Goddess: Canto The Tenth by Ivan Arguelles
Anywhere Out Of The World by Charles Baudelaire
The Letters Of Mina Harker by Dodie Bellamy
A Certain Slant Of Sunlight by Edmund Joseph Berrigan
Red Shift by Edmund Joseph Berrigan
Things To Do In Providence by Edmund Joseph Berrigan
Experience by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Inside Language by Charles Borkhuis
Quartet: Echo by Charles Borkhuis
Quartet: Particle by Charles Borkhuis
Quartet: Spark by Charles Borkhuis
Quartet: Wave by Charles Borkhuis
The Nature Of Musical Form by William M. Bronk
Come Go With Me Out To The Field by Lee Ann Brown
The Lyric Can Snare by Lee Ann Brown
The Crocus Turn And Gods (from Book Iii Of Fits Of Dawn) by Joseph Ceravolo
Dangers Of The Journey To The Happy Land by Joseph Ceravolo
Data by Joseph Ceravolo
Saturn by Norma Cole
Saturn: Phenotext by Norma Cole
Saturn: Variations On Some Of Dante's Last Lines by Norma Cole
Speech's Hedge Where The Honey: 1 by Peter Cole
Speech's Hedge Where The Honey: 12. The Poem Up There by Peter Cole
Speech's Hedge Where The Honey: 24. Speech's Hedge by Peter Cole
The Book Of During: Iv by Clark Coolidge
The Crystal Text by Clark Coolidge
In Nora's House With Rilke's Apollo by Clark Coolidge
For H.d. by Diane Di Prima
Paracelsus by Diane Di Prima
Desire by Joseph Donahue
Opiate Phobia by Joseph Donahue
Transfigurations by Joseph Donahue
The Walls Do Not Fall: 5 by Hilda Doolittle
Weathered Odes Gramt Young Flesh by Stephen Ellis
Your Poems At Daybreak, The Destruction Of Knossos By Afternoon by Stephen Ellis
Track (excerpt) by Norman Finkelstein
Hermetic Silence by Edward Foster
In Your Words by Edward Foster
The Marriage Of True Minds by Edward Foster
Morning by Edward Foster
Boot, Wet Sand And More White by Kathleen Fraser
Frammenti Romani: Marks And Evidence Of Events by Kathleen Fraser
These Labdanum Hours by Kathleen Fraser
A Table Laid With Horrors by Forrest Gander
Fire Music by Drew Gardner
Near Hermes by Drew Gardner
The Birdsongs Re Aging by Iwan Goll
The Lives Of Thomas -- Episodes & Prayers: Mustard Seeds In Her Field by John High
Mescalito by Anselm Hollo
On The Occasion Of Becoming An Echo by Anselm Hollo
Argument For Resurrection by Virginia Hooper
Deep Season by Virginia Hooper
Drawing Room Drama by Virginia Hooper
Lost In The Galleries by Virginia Hooper
A Reading by Virginia Hooper
Seven Doors Away by Virginia Hooper
Torn Parts: The Story by Fanny Howe
Thorow (1) by Susan Howe
Thorow (2) by Susan Howe
Ark: Beam 1 by Ronald Johnson
Ark: Beam 7 by Ronald Johnson
Baring The Device by Andrew Joron
Shade Of A Grammarian by Andrew Joron
Zirkus by Andrew Joron
The Loom (excerpt) by Robert Kelly
The Gold In The Mud by Gerrit Lansing
For Example (1): Stepping Out by Ann Lauterbach
For Example (5): Song Of The Already Sung by Ann Lauterbach
Subject To Change by Ann Lauterbach
John Coltrane Arrived With An Egyptian Lady by Nathaniel Mackey
Memphite Recension by Nathaniel Mackey
The Phantom Light Of All Our Day by Nathaniel Mackey
Slipped Quadrant by Nathaniel Mackey
Song Of The Andoumboulou: 12 by Nathaniel Mackey
Instrumentum Vocale by Kevin Magee
Tedium Drum, Part 4, Sels. by Kevin Magee
The Prospect Of Release: 1 by Tom Mandel
The Prospect Of Release: 10 by Tom Mandel
The Prospect Of Release: 3 by Tom Mandel
The Prospect Of Release: 4 by Tom Mandel
The Prospect Of Release: 5 by Tom Mandel
The Prospect Of Release: 7 by Tom Mandel
The Shade by Tom Mandel
It Moves Across by Bernadette Mayer
Sounds Of Day by Bernadette Mayer
Step One by Albert Mobilio
Step Seven by Albert Mobilio
The Third Kind Of Interior Word by Albert Mobilio
Rondeax by Laura Moriarty
Pure Mental Breath: 13 by Sheila E. Murphy
Pure Mental Breath: 22 by Sheila E. Murphy
Maxfield Parrish by Eileen Myles
The Bounty, Ii by Myung Mi Kim
Reaches The Body: Boundary by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Domesticity by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Head On by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: In Spite by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Jettison by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Judgment by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Passage by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Propagation by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Seclusion by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Submission by Claire Needell
Reaches The Body: Wave by Claire Needell
Jack Would Speak Through The Imperfect Medium Of Alice by Alice Notley
Night by Alice Notley
Ornamental Syllable by Geoffrey (1948-) O'brien
The Prophetic Child by Geoffrey (1948-) O'brien
Scroll by Geoffrey (1948-) O'brien
Theory Of Climate by Geoffrey (1948-) O'brien
Notes For Echo Lake 2 by Michael Palmer
O You In That Little Bark by Michael Palmer
The Theory Of The Flower by Michael Palmer
Untitled (september '92) by Michael Palmer
Annul. Gold? What, Real Gold? by Simon Pettet
Echo by Simon Pettet
'mad Lady On The Steps Asks If My Father's On The Street by Simon Pettet
Mevlana by Simon Pettet
Rose Garland Sonnet by Simon Pettet
Space In The Light Said To Be Where One I / Comes From: 40 by Stephen Ratcliffe
Space In The Light Said To Be Where One I / Comes From: 43 by Stephen Ratcliffe
Sirius by Donald Revell
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 1 by Ed Roberson
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 2 by Ed Roberson
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 3. On The Line by Ed Roberson
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 4 by Ed Roberson
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 5 by Ed Roberson
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 6. Handed The Rain by Ed Roberson
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 7 by Ed Roberson
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 8. Ask For 'how High The Moon' by Ed Roberson
Mortar by Ed Roberson
Anywoman's Lyric, Sels. by Janet Rodney
Job Speaks: Chapter 13 by David Rosenberg
Job Speaks: Chapter 14 by David Rosenberg
Job Speaks: Chapter 3 by David Rosenberg
An Early Spring by Stephen Sartarelli
Phantasmatikon by Stephen Sartarelli
That Land (3) by Stephen Sartarelli
That Land (4) by Stephen Sartarelli
New Bar by Leslie Scalapino
Run My Hand Under by Andrew Schelling
Exiles: Ends by Leonard Schwartz
Monuments To The Not Yet Lived by Leonard Schwartz
The Lake by Barry Seiler
The Spread by Spencer Selby
After by David Shapiro
Archaic Torsos by David Shapiro
A Book Of Glass by David Shapiro
House (blown Apart) by David Shapiro
Lateness by David Shapiro
Sentences by David Shapiro
Taking A Look by David Shapiro
To An Idea by David Shapiro
Agora by Aaron Shurin
Continuous Thunder by Aaron Shurin
Temptation by Aaron Shurin
Very Days by Aaron Shurin
Eccentricity Of The Middle Ground by Mary Margaret Sloan
Notes On Sound, Speech, Speech-crystals And The Celestial Echo by Gustaf Sobin
On The Nature Of The Iconic by Gustaf Sobin
Premises by Gustaf Sobin
Towards The Blanched Alphabets by Gustaf Sobin
Violet City: Aspects Of The Transitive by Gustaf Sobin
What The Music Wants by Gustaf Sobin
Twenty One Times by John Taggart
Genitalia by George Tysh
Isha Upanishad by Anonymous
Evangelle by Anne Waldman
Precious Mettle by Lewis Warsh
Angel Atrapado Viii by John Yau
A Differemt Cereal by John Yau
Edificio Sayonara by John Yau
We Are All Vultures by John Yau
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Edward Halsey Foster Page

Edward Foster is a widely published critic, essayist, editor, and poet. His poetry has been translated into, and published in, many languages, including single-author volumes in Slovenian, Romanian, and Russian.

The poetry editor of "MultiCultural Review," Foster is the founding editor of "Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics," Talisman House, Publishers, and Jensen/Daniels, Publishers. He is a co-editor of "Contemporary Turkish Culture." He is also the president of Greenfield Distribution, Inc., a book distribution company located in New Hampshire.

A Professor of History and Associate Dean for Administration in the College of Arts and Letters at the Stevens Institute of Technology, he is a former visiting professor at Drew University Graduate Faculty and Beykent University (Istanbul) and was a Fulbright lecturer at Haceteppe University in Ankara, Turkey, and at the University of Istanbul.

The co-director of the Russian/American Cultural Exchange Program, he has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards from Columbia University, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the USIA arts program, the New Jersey Historical Commission, Choice, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Fulbright Commision, the Greve Foundation, the Fund for Poetry, the Trubar Foundation, and the Turkish Ministry of Culture.

He has served on the Advisory Committee for the Middle East of the Council for Insternational Exchange of Scholars and is currently a member of the U.S. Student Fulbright National Screening Committee for Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey. He serves on the advisory committees for the Light Millennium, Inc., and the journal "Reconfigurations" and as an associate member of the Institute of Turkish Studies.

For further information, see the "Directory of American Scholars," "Contemporary Authors," "Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series," "The Writers Directory," "The International Writers and Authors Who's Who," and "Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series." See also "Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series," ed. Shelley Andrews, Vol. 26; "Olivier Brossard Interviews Edward Foster," "Double Change" (2003) (online version: www.doublechange.com/issue3); radio interviews archived at "Penn Sound" (www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/XCP); "Twentieth-Century American Poetry" (Facts-on-File); John Olson, "Inner Light," "Jacket Magazine" (2006); "The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry."