Interglacial: New and Selected Poems & Aphorisms

By James Richardson

Book Overview

This book gathers under one roof poems from all of Richardson's earlier collections, a number of which are out of print: Reservations (1977), Second Guesses (1984), As If(1992), A Suite for Lucretians (1999), How Things Are (2000), and Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays (2001), as well as a large selection of new poems and aphorisms.

A distillation of three decades of work, Interglacial will introduce this poet to a new generation of readers. Richardson fans will be pleased to discover early poems long out of print, and to see this poet's work in a larger, retrospective context.

Praise for Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays:

"Not since the appearance of W.S. Merwin's translations and adaptations of aphorisms in Asian Figures, some thirty years ago, has an American poet put down so much delightful and compelling wisdom."--Daryl Scroggins in American Literary Review

"Page after page there is the exciting sense of something hidden and true coming to light, bringing with it a sense of delighted recognition and discovery for the reader, and articulated in a way that has never quite been done before. I can think of no deeper pleasure a work can bring."--Laurie Sheck

"Vectors is the kind of book you read, reread, thumb through, and pick up several extra copies because you want to share the joy you found in perusing it with friends."--Scott Hightower in Barrow Street

James Richardson was born in 1950, and is the author of six books of poetry and three critical studies. The recipient of the Cecil Hemley and Robert H. Winner Prizes from the Poetry Society of America and fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Princeton University.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931337217
• ISBN13: 9781931337212
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Ausable Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

read, reread

The poetry, as all poetry, is best read aloud. The aphorisms, one at a time and savored. There is much wisdom...

An Excellent Attempt at Essence

The cover containing Paul Klee's painting is a give-away to some of the excellent work contained in this book. As the painting attempts to define the relationship between the basics of color and shape, James Richardson's Interglacial makes attempts at defining essence poetically, in particular the aphorisms in 'Encyclopedia of the Stones' are a wonderful attempt at providing insight into the essence of stones. Fans of Philip Larkin will particularly enjoy this work, as it is similar in its minimalistic, stark nature, exploring many classic metaphysical issues through use of beautiful, impacting imagery. In particular, the gentle frailty in nature is explored with stunning poems such as 'Anyway' and 'Doppler Effects'. This book is a bargain for its price, I have owned it less than a month and the wear and tear is already significant, always sitting within easy reach next to Larkin and Brodsky.

A 253-page compendium of writings

Interglacial: New And Selected Poems & Aphorisms is a 253-page compendium of writings by prize winning poet James Richardson. Spellbound: And what of the child Bad Magic/clanged shut in a bluebird,/who sat half-lit in the re-leafing arbor,/listening for his old name in the family hubbub,/who meant to cry out...but seedflash, a hummer of wings.../couldn't hold to his dream,/small and quick as a spark, of having been/a child once? Who couldn't see into those windows,/quick as sparks, where slowly they still played,/who meant...but shrill, but two flights twined/outflinging...And sometimes in the clatter/of coffee on the lawn, their voices lowering/and slowed (that he could not tell/from landslide, from preliminary thunder),/they would seem to speak of him/something...but it was years/and he meant...but too-swift heart,/flit like forget and South like a soft downstairs,/and something sang him something flew him away...