Rain Mirror: New Poems [Paperback]

Michael McClure (Author)

Book Description

Series: New Directions Paperbook | Publication Date: September 1, 1999

"Rain Mirror," writes poet Michael McClure, "is my most bare and forthright book. It contains two long poems, 'Crisis Blossom' and 'Haiku Edge' which are quite disparate from one another." Yet brought under a single cover, the poems compliment each other as do light and dark, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, Yin and Yang. "Haiku Edge" is a serial poem of linked haikus in the American idiom. Often humorous, sometimes harsh, always elegant, they catch moments in the landscape of Oakland's East Bay Hills where McClure now lives. "Crisis Blossom" in contrast is a long poem in three parts ("Graftings," "After the Solstice," and "After Meltdown") that record the poet's months' long shock and recovery after a near-fatal airplane accident. It is, in McClure's words, "my state of psyche, capillaries, muscles, fears, boldnesses, and hungers, down where they exist without managment." With Rain Mirror, the poet moves in two directions, inward and outward, to arrive at the balance point between the self and nonself: "THERE'S ME/and no me/on the other side/I'm here under hand/AND THERE/where thoughts glide."

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

In McClures latest, two long poems (Haiku Edge and Crisis Blossom) comprise one surprisingly unified volume that succeeds in conveying both the rhythms and the terrors of ordinary life. McClure has a profoundly Eastern consciousness and displays a Zen-like affinity for simplicity and white space, a proclivity reflected most obviously in the visual arrangement of his verse into short lines centered on the page and having a sharp vertical thrust. Haiku Edge, a seemingly random construction of haiku, portrays the disparate elements and experiences of life in McClures hometown of Oakland (Calif.). Although the pieces all display the impressionism and narrative restraint typical of the haiku form (MAROON / suitcase / by / a / garbage can. / My / white / breath / in / air.), taken together they form a kind of mosaic of the daily world, at once sharply patterned and unobtrusive. Crisis Blossom, written in very similar style, nevertheless presents almost a mirror image of the world of Haiku Edge. Its a sharply interior collection of three works written in the aftermath of an airplane crash that nearly caused the authors death. Narrating the experience from the unexamined peace of take-off (Smell of greasy food / in the airport) to the final peace of recovery (SPRING BEAUTY / THANKSGIVING / THANKS GIVING / GIVING THANKS), the poetry follows a familiar Dante-esque route from tragedy to rebirth. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"Michael McClure shares a place with the great William Blake, with the visionary Shelley, with the passionate D. H. Lawrence." -- Robert Creeley

After Meltdown
Before Dawn
Big Round
Big
The Big
The Blue-black Jay
Brass
Bud
Bud
The Butterfly
The Calico
Cold Slap Of Waves On The Rock
Drops
The Dusty
Flower (1)
Flower (2)
Flower (3)
Flower (4)
Flower (5)
Flower (6)
For Bruce Conner
For Jack And Adelle
For James Broughton
For Norma
For Robin And Richard
The Fox Turd
Freeway
Give Way Or Be Smitten Into Nothingness And Everlasting Night
Grafting: 1
Grafting: 10
Grafting: 11
Grafting: 12
Grafting: 13
Grafting: 14
Grafting: 15
Grafting: 16
Grafting: 17
Grafting: 18
Grafting: 19
Grafting: 2
Grafting: 20
Grafting: 21
Grafting: 22
Grafting: 23
Grafting: 24
Grafting: 25
Grafting: 26
Grafting: 27
Grafting: 28
Grafting: 3
Grafting: 4
Grafting: 5
Grafting: 6
Grafting: 7
Grafting: 8
Grafting: 9
The Green
Haiku
Haiku
Haiku Of The Hunt
Haiku: For Harry
Haiku: For Monica
Here Songs Come Out
Hey Driver
Hey, It's All Consciousness
Huge White
Look There
Maroon
Mmm
Moldy Board
Monkey
Most
The Mystery
A November
Oh, Silver
Orion
A Pair
A Pine Tree
Pinecone
Pink Bandaid Stuck
Plum
The Roar
See Falling
See
Skull And Cross Bones
Smell Of Smoke
Sparkly Flies
Summer Hummingbird
There's Me
The Tiny Green-black Snake
Trees
Two Cats
Under The Fur
What Soft
Why Are
Wind Blows Waves
With A Gentle
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

McClure's work is about liberation--chiefly from the enslavement of one's own mind and spirit.... -- Richard Powell, Small Pond Magazine

Once he begins stripping away the layers of human skin and exposes his truer self, hard and raw, raw and vulnerable, you no longer are listening to music, but are moving through poetry. -- Louis Mckee, Painted Bird Quarterly

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation; 1 edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811214265
• ISBN-13: 978-0811214261
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 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: #2,840,608 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 from the dustjacket, January 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Rain Mirror: New Poems (Paperback)

" ... Michael McClure shares a place with the great William Blake, with the visionary Shelley, with the passionate D.H. Lawrence ... " - Robert Creeley

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious Gelatinous Seagiants, July 4, 2003

By 

John David Locking (Brussel, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rain Mirror: New Poems (Paperback)

Mirrors of Inflections thru Sapphirous seven pieces of Jasperlik
e Facets thru Mysterious Gelatinous Seagiants of Good Lucifer's Anemoneworld of Aquariusesses' rotten bananaes thru hotspot of white collar corpses of Gelatinous Seagiants were mysterious lef
t alone where earthquakes shakens by burrowing mudgiants where ... ... ... ., ttyl