Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In (Iowa Poetry Prize) [Paperback]

Ed Roberson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Roberson's dense poetry has achieved acclaim (this collection won the 1994 Iowa Poetry Prize) while he has maintained a low profile as a university administrator. But a combination of public and private interests occupies this volume, which features two long poetic cycles reminiscent of Pound's Cantos. The 50-page sequence (including 45 13-line poems titled "This Week's Concerts") is contained within the elliptical "Lucid Interval as Integral Music" and considers a broad range of American themes-war, racism, assassinations and urban violence. Lines like "had given blue feet to police siren such/ that I thought the scream a jazz jade bowl and a step" achieve coherence as images of America in disarray are repeated, varied and replayed. "The Aerialist Narratives" is a more personal, somewhat autobiographical sequence about relationships, centered around the images of the moon. Roberson is downright straightforward here-"The trees on the other side of the rapids didn't/ impart the peace we'd set off our escape for"-although it's impossible to pin down "facts" about much of the poet's life. (An introduction by Andrew Welsh gives some of that information, but its laudatory tone ill-serves the work itself.) Roberson's simple message, however, that things in life are hard to pin down, is reiterated with authority in numerous ways throughout this complex, fine collection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The Aerialist Narratives, I: 1. Aerialist Narrative
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 10. The Comb
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 11. Given Way
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 2. Taking The Print
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 3. Heading - The Landing
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 4. Waterfowl Landing - It Lifts To Close
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 5. Properties
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 6. Cape Journal - At Sand Pile
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 7. African Ascendancy
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 8. Research At The Intersice
The Aerialist Narratives, I: 9. The Motorcyle Crossing
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 1. Mblemati.txt
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 10. Elegy For A White Cock
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 11. Onze
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 2
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 3. Heron Riddle Flashback
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 4
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 5. Cinquain De Lune
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 6. What The Return Of The Lines Meant
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 7. Chorus At Ohiopyle
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 8. Gnosis
The Aerialist Narratives, Ii: 9
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 1
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 10. Ha
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 11. In Light Of Dream
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 2
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 3. On The Line
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 4
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 5
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 6. Handed The Rain
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 7
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 8. Ask For 'how High The Moon'
The Aerialist Narratives, Iii: 9. After The De-tonations On The Moon
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 1. 12.b.obs.oed
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 10
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 2. Isolating Nurturent
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 3
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 4
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 5. Photograph House Poet
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 6. Apart From What Each
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 7
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 8
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: 9
Interval And Final Day's Concerts: Interval
Picking Up The Tune, The Universe And Planets
This Week's Concerts: 1
This Week's Concerts: 10
This Week's Concerts: 11
This Week's Concerts: 12
This Week's Concerts: 13
This Week's Concerts: 14
This Week's Concerts: 15. The Local/elevations
This Week's Concerts: 16. No
This Week's Concerts: 17
This Week's Concerts: 18
This Week's Concerts: 19
This Week's Concerts: 2
This Week's Concerts: 20
This Week's Concerts: 21
This Week's Concerts: 22
This Week's Concerts: 23
This Week's Concerts: 24
This Week's Concerts: 25
This Week's Concerts: 26
This Week's Concerts: 27. Hugh Spaces Apart We Still Look
This Week's Concerts: 28
This Week's Concerts: 29
This Week's Concerts: 3
This Week's Concerts: 30
This Week's Concerts: 31
This Week's Concerts: 32
This Week's Concerts: 33
This Week's Concerts: 34
This Week's Concerts: 35
This Week's Concerts: 36
This Week's Concerts: 37
This Week's Concerts: 38
This Week's Concerts: 39
This Week's Concerts: 4
This Week's Concerts: 40. I Have Opened Six Ti's Nine Knots
This Week's Concerts: 41
This Week's Concerts: 42
This Week's Concerts: 43. Simbi Petro Damballah La Flambeau
This Week's Concerts: 44. The Seven Deltas Of Shango's Wives
This Week's Concerts: 45
This Week's Concerts: 46
This Week's Concerts: 5
This Week's Concerts: 6
This Week's Concerts: 7
This Week's Concerts: 8
This Week's Concerts: 9
This Week's Concerts: At Any Of The Bethabaras: Metempsycho
This Week's Concerts: Seizure By Simple Error
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 166 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press; 1 edition (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877455104
• ISBN-13: 978-0877455103
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the very best contemporary poets, March 29, 2000

By 

J. Hale "johnny negotiable" (Juneau, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In (Iowa Poetry Prize) (Paperback)

Roberson weaves his poems out of any number of different voices, all compelling, and with the sort of compelling rhythms that too often seem foreign to contemporary poetry. Frequently his poems play a kind of "touch-and-go" game with the reader, where a voice will make its appearance just long enough for the reader to acknowledge its presence, and then the poem is off again into some other voice, some other perspective. Which makes for exciting reading. And when was the last time you actually Sandpile" and "Elegy for a White Cock."