Configurations: New & Selected Poems, 1958-1998 (Paperback)

~ (Author) "gave things I could not use..." (more)
Key Phrases: Unseen Hands

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Death ... is not all / she's cracked up to be," Clarence Major announces in "Love Against Death"--and indeed, the rest of Configurations makes a valiant effort to knock the old girl down a peg or two. Death may be a constant companion in this volume, but she's never allowed to take control; for this poet, you must accept mortality--not let it haunt you--to be truly alive. Major's first collection, Swallow the Lake, won the National Council for the Arts Award in 1970. He has gone on to produce eight well-received volumes, all of which are represented--along with many uncollected works--in this striking overview of his career thus far. While these poems are born out of the William Carlos Williams school of plain speech, they are equally inflected by bebop's syncopated rhythms and improvisational style. One notices both in "Un Poco Loco," in which the speaker's "disconnected thoughts" riff against the steady rhythm of the grandmother preparing dinner, à la Williams: "To keep going, I think / disconnected thoughts: / Chatter. Chew-tobacco. / Phoenicians. Rednecks. / To keep going I watch / my grandmother hold / the chicken by its legs-- / bauk bauk bauk!"

Throughout these poems, Major is adamant about the need to hold onto hope even while we confront our mortality. His poems approach this in numerous ways--through bursts of metaphoric images, through patterns of music and formal rhythmic structure, and through narrative interaction with others on the same inescapable journey. In the book's strongest pieces, such as "Love Against Death," all of these devices work together with moving results:

With our love, dear, we fight death,
and we fight unclear meanings.
They are like air released
in a broken scream--
at three in the morning
when your legs feel wooden.

Embrace night odors.
Embrace each other.
Rub your hands
against the roughness
of the whitewashed wall.
For now, you are alive.

In Configurations, Major fights both death and unclear meanings in language of uncompromising clarity and precision. For now, he seems to suggest, this is what it means to be alive. --A.J. Rathbun

Review

"Clarence Major writes poetry with the resistant, angular surface of tumbled brick. As if the poem has been literally smashed. An improvisational, jazz-like quality. Some tough, sharp observations..." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Passionate and controlled lyricism... The prevailing tonality of the poetry is quiet, almost philosophical..." -- Library Journal

Aging Together
Apple Core
The Apple-maggot Fly
Arriving Uninvited
At Pointe De Rompe Talon
At The Zoo In Spain
Atelier Cezanne
Balance And Beauty
Ballroom Dark
Being And Becoming (2)
Bernardston
Beyond Impasse
Bill's
Birds
Bricks And Sleep
Brief Visit To Venice
Clay Bison In A Cave
Coon Showman
The Cotton Club
Dance Floor
Dancing Under The Stars At Nice
Darwin's Dream
Descendant Of Solomon And The Queen Of Sheba
Dismal Moment Passing
The Dispute
Divine Law: A Blue Beach Sermon
The Doll Believers
Downwind
Drawing From Life
Dressed To Kill
Eighteen-dollar Taxi Trip To Tizapan And Back To Chapala
En Promenade Des Anglais
The Expanded Composition
First
Flowers For My Date
Food For Thought; Or, Death Is Physical
Frenzy
Funeral
A Gallup Swill-hole; Or, Cantina Blues
Giant Red Woman
The Great Horned Owl
A Guy I Know On 47th And Cottage
Harps
Hazy Day In The Composition
Heartland Music
Home On Rue Du Bourg-tibourg
Honey Dripper
In Absence Of The Tree
In Hollywood With The Zuni God Of War
In The Armpit Of The Hill
In The Storage Room For The Dead
In Walked Bud With A Palette
The Jake Flower
Kitchen Chair Poem #4
Kitchen Chair Poem #5
A Life Story
Little Rock
Looking At Images Reflected In The Showcase Plate Glass
Lost In The Desert
Love Against Death
Madman Of The South Side
Matthew
Measure
Montalban: Near The Ancient Fort
Mother Junkie
My Seasonal Body
The Nerve
No Single Thing By Itself
No Time For Self-pity
None Of It Was
On The Nature Of Perspective
On The Old Roman Road
On Watching A Caterpillar Become A Butterfly
The Operating Room: Emergencies
Pencil Sketch
The Perfect Match
Posing
Pupa
The Rainy Season
Read The Signs
Revelation At Cap Ferrat
Riders
Round Midnight
Sailing
Sand Flesh And Sky
Santa Maria Dei Frari
Saving Just The Real
Seine Split
September Mendocino
Sexual Conduct
Sign Language
The Slave Trade: View From The Middle Passage
Stillness And Vertigo
The String
Study For A Geofraphical Trail; 12. New York
Study For A Geographical Trail; 1. Seattle
Study For A Geographical Trail; 10. New York
Study For A Geographical Trail; 11. Boston
Study For A Geographical Trail; 13. Atlanta
Study For A Geographical Trail; 14. Denver
Study For A Geographical Trail; 16. Mississippi
Study For A Geographical Trail; 17. Texas
Study For A Geographical Trail; 18. Vermont
Study For A Geographical Trail; 19. Nebraska
Study For A Geographical Trail; 2. Illinois
Study For A Geographical Trail; 20. A State Of Mind
Study For A Geographical Trail; 3. Washington, D.c.
Study For A Geographical Trail; 4. New Jersey
Study For A Geographical Trail; 5. Maryland
Study For A Geographical Trail; 6. Boulder
Study For A Geographical Trail; 7. Alabama
Study For A Geographical Trail; 8. New Jersey
Study For A Geographical Trail; 9. Chicago
Surfaces And Masks; 1
Surfaces And Masks; 12
Surfaces And Masks; 14
Surfaces And Masks; 16
Surfaces And Masks; 17
Surfaces And Masks; 18
Surfaces And Masks; 22
Surfaces And Masks; 23
Surfaces And Masks; 25
Surfaces And Masks; 28
Surfaces And Masks; 30
Surfaces And Masks; 31
Surfaces And Masks; 35
Surfaces And Masks; 37
Surfaces And Masks; 4
Surfaces And Masks; 43
Surfaces And Masks; 8
Surfaces And Masks; 9
Swallow The Lake
The Swine Who's Eclipsed Me
The Syncopated Cakewalk
Tewa Victories
The Textures Of Space
Three Views Of Horse
Train Stop
Un Poco Loco
Unwanted Memory
View From His Room
Waiter In A California Vietnamese Resturant
Waiting In The Children's Hospital
The Way The Roundness Feels
The Women In The Waiting Room
Words Into Words Won't Go
The Wounded Bullfighter
Wyoming
Young Woman
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press; 1st edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556590903
• ISBN-13: 978-1556590900
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,612,362 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #4 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Major, Clarence