Turneresque [Paperback]

Elizabeth Willis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Burning Deck Poetry Series | Publication Date: January 1, 2003

Poetry. A long-awaited new title from Elizabeth Willis, who was born in 1961 in Awali, Bahrain and grew up primarily in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She currently teaches at Wesleyan University after teaching for many years at Mills College in Oakland. "Nothing is moving but me: I'm a blackbird. The neighbor's in labor, but so am I, pushing against the road. Physics tells us nothing is lost, but I've been copping time from death and can't relent for every job the stars drop on my back"-from "September 9". SPD also carries THE HUMAN ABSTRACT, SECOND LAW, and A/O by Elizabeth Willis.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Indulging in the quintessentially poetic art of associating things that have never been found together before, Willis (The Human Abstract) here combines the haunting luminosity of English painter J.M.W. Turner with the lucid black-and-white of American film noir, along with the darkly visionary poetry of Rimbaud, Blake and Baudelaire. Thanks to Willis's skill with language, and the deftly undercutting humor that pervades, these potentially awkward juxtapositions make poetry. Alternating between prose and lyric form, between tough-guy language gleaned from B movies and achingly lovely tropes, Willlis often works in miniature, carefully crafting each line to deflate pomposity or sentiment that might otherwise outsize her subjects: "What does it take/ to make a happy ant?// a dropped lozenge/ on the damp step." Intrinsic to her poems is a basic wonderment at the world, but rather than be surprised that it exists, she ponders the common force that holds everything together. While her speaker is not afraid to admit that she "cannot describe salt," she discovers something essential in the intricacies of thought ("She of the elaborate mind, who elevates the evening with a subtle tart") as it proceeds through the vagaries, pleasures and torments of life. An elegy for Matthew Shepard finds, "You've been indexed/ & written in pencil on bedroom walls/ & like Shelley, writ in light," articulating at once Shepard's appropriation, historicity and humanity.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Burning Deck (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886224625
• ISBN-13: 978-1886224629
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 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: #710,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance (as usual) from Willis., December 14, 2004

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turneresque (Paperback)

Elizabeth Willis, Turneresque (Burning Deck Press, 2003)

Elizabeth Willis' third (that I've found to date) full-length work is just as gorgeous and surprising as her previous book, The Human Abstract. Willis is one of the few poets who can actually pull off the prose poem and make it sound like more than a short-short story:

"Doctors sculpt a monster to disprove everything. Scaling mountains, she forgives herself the climbs of youth. Nothing can stop her dark mouth. She governs boys carelessly. You can't forge her dazzle. She stars all the time. Acts accrue against her inner caning. She lifts and shoots in furs, criming her way to newness, men...." (from "A Woman's Face")

An amazing book from an amazing writer. Elizabeth Willis deserves to be far, far better-known than she is now; pick up Turneresque (and The Human Abstract, while you're at it) and help spread the word. **** ½

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Only Wish It Were Longer!, October 14, 2005

By 

WordWizard "WW" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turneresque (Paperback)

With her antenna-like attention to detail, haunting poignancy, and impressive range, Willis has once again successfully bridged the world of materiality and that of metaphysics in this third theme-based collection from Burning Deck. Willis is one of the only poets left who is able to make surrealism "real", and to be able to transform her wisdom into a lively experience for the reader. Her words are so carefully chosen and her atmospheres so wholly and heartfully rendered, that the book's only disappointment is its short length. A brilliant piece of gold among dull rocks, and well worth the buy.