Pioneers in the Study of Motion (Ahsahta Press: the New Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: André Tridon

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Amid a riot of signals, cranes, and circuitry from Mexico City to Antarctica the reader succumbs to a sense of non-stop construction, to the craven expansion of cities in the glistening fields. In the chaos of sensory overload, the poet still manages to detect droplets of pollen slip from anther to stamen, to feel a stream running dry inside. It s a work of shuddering velocity an ode, a screed, a lament, a love song of 'pristine and inarticulate mornings.' Susan Briante's Pioneers in the Study of Motion details the ravages of the world in a voracious struggle to savor its sweetness." --C.D. Wright

"Susan Briante brings vibrancy and precision to her image making with a language that thrives on sensual disclosures of subject matter and shifting after-effects of the unforgotten. Pioneers in the Study of Motion traces the unsettling of a life over geographies of what we leave behind, in forms of address at once alert to the vernacular of lyric thinking and to speculative pleasures that do not shy from accountability, aesthetic and ethical. Her practice compels argument in great shortage across the alleged fence of U.S. verse writing today and so makes a claim on a time lag: that of semblance in search of sounds assembled in such 'slender forms [as] to express a large country.'" --Roberto Tejada

"Susan Briante s poetry recalls aspects of Cesar Vallejo's Trilce's non-sequitur shifts that feel right but elude the univocational mind. Gary Snyder's noun thing density also comes to mind in her sensuous, crosscut, traveler observations. This writing fractures, caesuras, and rends its way through a Mexican, American, international, indigenous present, achieving a density that, in language, works through our urban sign-loaded multidirectional scapes." --Clayton Eshleman

Review

“Susan Briante’s book, Pioneers in the Study of Motion, is new from Ahsahta Press at Boise State University. ‘It’s a work of shuddering velocity,’ writes C.D. Wright on the back cover, ‘an ode, a screed, a lament, a love song . . . .’ The velocity is that of an acute, lyrical intelligence darting from thing to thing, opening the poetic voice to a broad range of perceptions. I’m especially taken with an intermittent series in the first section of the book, ‘3rd Day of the Rainy Season,’ ‘5th Day of the Rainy Season,’ etc., which read as both an ongoing, submerged ‘ars poetica’/dialogue with the act of writing, a la Robert Duncan’s interwoven ‘Structure of Rime’ series, and a test of the ‘velocity’ that Wright mentions . . . .” —from the review by David Hadbawnik at Primitive Information

“Amid a riot of signals, cranes, and circuitry—from Mexico City to Antarctica—the reader succumbs to a sense of non-stop construction, to the craven expansion of cities in the glistening fields. In the chaos of sensory overload, the poet still manages to detect ‘droplets of pollen slip from anther to stamen,’ to feel a stream running dry inside. It’s a work of shuddering velocity—an ode, a screed, a lament, a love song of ‘pristine and inarticulate mornings.’ Susan Briante’s Pioneers in the Study of Motion details the ravages of the world in a voracious struggle to savor its sweetness.” —C.D. Wright

“Susan Briante brings vibrancy and precision to her image making with a language that thrives on sensual disclosures of subject matter and shifting after-effects of the unforgotten. Pioneers in the Study of Motion traces the unsettling of a life over geographies of what we leave behind, in forms of address at once alert to the vernacular of lyric thinking and to speculative pleasures that do not shy from accountability, aesthetic and ethical. Her practice compels argument—in great shortage across the alleged fence of U.S. verse writing today—and so makes a claim on a time lag: that of semblance in search of sounds assembled in such ‘slender forms [as] to express a large country.’ ” —Roberto Tejada

“Susan Briante’s poetry recalls aspects of Cesar Vallejo’s Trilce’s non-sequitor shifts that feel right but elude the univocational mind. Gary Snyder’s noun thing density also comes to mind in her sensuous, crosscut, traveler observations. This writing fractures, caesuras, and rends its way through a Mexican, American, international, indigenous present, achieving a density that, in language, works through our urban sign-loaded multidirectional scapes.” —Clayton Eshelman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Ahsahta Press (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916272931
• ISBN-13: 978-0916272937
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,573,777 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)