""Renunciation" introduces a powerful new poet whose work, though it treads the ground of silence and loss, bears a redemptive grace. Disquieting and healing, Corey Marks's poems hold to "a moment when possibility / bristles so close it holds a shape in the air". The sculptor, Gislebertus, Doubting Thomas, Theseus, and John Keats share space in the pages of "Renunciation" with a survivor of the bomb in Hiroshima, a blind girl in the South American jungle, and DeSoto's thirteen swine in the hold of a ship bound for America. Rich with almost palpable nuances of light and sound, Marks's lyric meditations unravel a constant play of loss and continuation, "mending sense from spare threads" and hovering over connections undone even as they are made."
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"A densely imagined and richly felt poetry where abstractions are clothed in flesh and blood." -- Eugene Weekly ADVANCE PRAISE "By some process that seems magical Corey Marks can enter the lives of others--the famous and the anonymous--and remain himself in a voice so singular we learn to trust it totally. This is what the new century's poetry will sound like when it is written by someone truly gifted and compassionate. Marks believes so completely in the power of the imagination his words can burn you." -- Philip Levine "What has been renounced ... is that stiff-necked assertion of self which makes for our discomfort in the presence of so much ambitious new poetry. Here, everything, however high it aspires, is tractable and, in the loftiest sense, free. However exalted, the poems take their meandering ways with a certain ease, the release (and the relief) afforded by a man who knows not only his own mind but his own measure." -- Richard Howard "Corey Marks has the superb ability to create delicate and strong bridges of narrative poems that combine intellectual acuity with emotional involvement." -- Adam Zagajewski
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
don't renounce RENUNCIATION,
By A Customer
This review is from: Renunciation : Poems (The National Poetry Series) (Paperback)
Wow! my creative writing instructor suggested I buy this book and she knew what she was talking about. Philip Levine selected it for the National Poetry Series and, unlike so many contest winners, this one deserved the prize. Marks' book is a real accomplishment for a first book; most third books aren't this good! At the book's center is the kind of poem all poets wish they could write, the moving homage "For Keats, After Keats." And there's the long title poem, a kind of spiritual meditation which contains subtle echoes of George Herbert. These poems are resonant, dense, formally adept, and full of exploding passions. Get this book!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lesson book, a comfort; wonderful,
By
This review is from: Renunciation : Poems (The National Poetry Series) (Paperback)
A book of narratives of remarkable clarity. Hard to believe someone so young can tell stories with such grace. Corey has the strangest distance between author and event I have ever read: Swear it was his hand moving things, but he is still surprised, and still humble. Terribly, terribly moving.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poet's Heart,
By A Customer
This review is from: Renunciation: Poems (National Poetry Series) (Hardcover)
At the heart of this great book is the heart of a pure poet. Marks writes with respect for his work and subject, bravely stepping out of the way of his words so they can stand on their own. Unlike most young poets, Marks writes with humility, yet without apology: in a time when our poetry follows at the heels of our confused culture, Marks steps away to name and clarify his place in it. Renunciation is good poetry from a writer with a good heart.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
When I'm ready to think of something else, finally, I think of wind that runs like a river along a river, and trees bending into themselves with a will for breaking, a will to break from the soil and leave the lap of the horsefield where death has laid its head, its fire-red curls. Read the first page New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
When I'm ready to think of something else, finally, I think of wind that runs like a river along a river, and trees bending into themselves with a will for breaking, a will to break from the soil and leave the lap of the horsefield where death has laid its head, its fire-red curls. Read the first page New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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- Collected Poems by Stevie Smith in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Selected Poems by Stevie Smith in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Selected Poems: Charlotte Smith (Fyfield Books) by Charlotte Smith in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Local Men: Poems by James Whitehead in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Selected Poems (William Carlos Williams) by William Carlos Williams in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
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