Unsleeping: Poems [Hardcover]

Michael Burkard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

Michael Burkard's eighth and most experimental book of poetry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A fugue-like sensibility sustains Burkard's lyric imagination throughout his eighth collection, harking back to previous book-length investigations like Fictions from the Self and My Secret Boat. The psychological insights often border on obsession, reading like an insomniac's notebook and relying heavily on repetition. At their best, the images feel dream-likeA"One time he washed the moon and put it in his pocket. One time he/ washed the moon and it didn't dry right and it appeared to be all/ crushed"Aand the sounds are hypnotic: "When the quietness is both dim and fail dim and fail/ When the remembering is you against a you you do not recall." But such techniques can fall flat, subjecting the reader to flourishes of rhetorical stutter, whether the poet feels "a genuine need to thank the writer/ again, and he did, and again, and he did" or suffers at his own sense of bewilderment: "I don't know... I don't know what/ I think/ think about what I write./ I don't want to know." Though Burkard employs a wide variety of forms, from single-stanza poems to poems strung together with numerous sections, some come across as mere exercises in anaphora ("Kafka Tom"; "No") and epistrophe ("Radius of a Ghost"). In his notes, Burkard curiously thanks his editors at Sarabande "for arranging the contents" of Unsleeping. Perhaps Burkard ("The rearranger rearranging the rearranged./ The lone rearranger. Rangers of the rearranged, rearrangers/ of the purple sage") should have waited until he himself was fully awake. (Feb.) Forecast: Like Charlie Smith and Franz Wright, Burkard unflinchingly investigates the current brand of unpretentious, unacademic, borderline anti-intellectual, white male, baby boomer, tough guy poses. This book, Burkard's second for Sarabande, has an intimate-but-not-embarrassing tone that is rough enough for Bukowski readers but smart enough for William Matthews fans; handselling could help reach those micromarkets.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In Burkard's intensely psychological poetry, "unsleeping" refers to a dreamy state of semi-consciousness when one is "not quite sleeping yet." The lines take the form of conundrums or metaphysical transcriptions that at times sound like epigrams from Heidegger or Wittgenstein: "Things become is" or "I tell you he is talking/ Is not." To read Unsleeping means to enter a poet's stream of consciousness where he ponders his complicated relationships with women, his on again/off again feelings for his brother, and his obsessive love of the moon and snow. In the title poem, Burkard suggests that all these fleeting perceptions are somehow enclosed in the "house" of language, a place where you might encounter the "ghost of yourself." As in his Fictions from the Self (LJ 5/1/88. o.p.), the poet writes from the depth of his being and each one of his poems is uttered like a plaintive cry ("I am a postcard of snow and you are my footsteps"). Recommended for larger collections.DDaniel L. Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 88 pages
• Publisher: Sarabande Books; 1st edition (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889330523
• ISBN-13: 978-1889330525
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,559,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tender Michael Burkard, June 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Unsleeping: Poems (Paperback)

What? No one has yet reviewed this tender and beautiful book? Burkard is open and egoless as water, and his sensitivity is luminous. Read "Hat Angel" and cry, cry, cry.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart First, July 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Unsleeping: Poems (Paperback)

Unlike so many contemporary poets, who are interested only in showing off their facility with words and their postmodern senses of "humor," Burkard continues to stretch and pull and widen our capacity to feel.

Burkard fans---did you know he's doing artwork now? Check out the cover of Diane Wald's THE YELLOW HOTEL (buy it for the poems inside AND the cover art---you won't be sorry).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insominia and other ailments, November 4, 2001

By 

Nancy Jones (Baghdad, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unsleeping: Poems (Hardcover)

Michael Burkard continues to champion the shy and battered, the self-conscious voices with a quiet dignity and grace. They roar and squeak from page to page. More so than in the past, Burkard has grown secure with insecure. He seems to allow the "crumbly tinges" to speak for themselves. The prat-falls of life are old friends, new lovers. And Burkard is taking us all for a tour on his train.

This is great book for the Burkard devotee and newbie alike. Don't be afraid to read it cover to cover.