![]() ![]() …………of the ears and the blank circles in the eyes …………to suggest crayons for the blotchy insides ![]() ……………………………….The voice of the shuttle =Īs on a clumsy native loom she wove a brilliant fabric, Throughout, however, more conscious poetic voice lurks within the text: ![]() True to form, the poem weaves a variety of narrative voices together, including the advice of a children’s grief counselor, a children’s story about death, the anecdote of an animal control officer whose voice is “Un-American,” and a modern re-telling of the story of Philomel. For example, the longer poem, which begins the book’s second section, “Forcible Touching,” questions the ability of art to respond to trauma. However, as Fulton writes in “Triptych For Topological Heart,” “Without ardour, / theory suffers” (19), and there is a more stable bedrock below the swift current.īarely Composed is not merely a case of style in lieu of substance the dense verbiage can occasionally obscure, but not replace or negate, the somber contemplation at the book’s core. As a defense of poetry, or of “art for art’s sake,” Barely Composed would stand just fine on its own. This play-impulse becomes a powerful argument in its own right: what is poetry for, if not to test the limits of language, to bend things to the point of breaking, then cobble them back together? And certainly, a number of poems, such as “The Next Big Thing” and “’Make It New’” attest to poetry’s inherent value. Even a passive reading of this book offers more than the usual amount of surprise. ![]() This difficulty isn’t frustrating if one is willing to be taken wherever the words lead them, and find an individual meaning in every line. A tribe of disembodied pronouns roam across the landscape, and the purposeful ambiguity of the phrasing can send the reader on the wrong track unnoticed for lines at a time. How the realtor’s lens makes everything look largerĪnd there’s so much glare the floor looks wowĪ Fulton line seems as effortless and thrilling as a Muhammad Ali spar session, but it can be just as dizzying if the reader is not paying attention. We would be soothedīy that slow looking with a limited truth value. …………………………….The gentle interface of yawn and nature. Lines like these, from “Wow Moment,” exemplify the book’s usual tone: I’m not sure I’ve ever read a poet who adventures through language so broadly and enthusiastically. One result of this approach: there is not a single page of this book in which I couldn’t find an astonishing line or image. High and low language coexist harmoniously, but not peacefully. Repetitive artificial forms and meandering vers libre are equally welcome. As they go, Fulton quotes Shakespeare and Celan while dropping in the occasional emoticon or snatch of Esperanto puns and nonce-words abound. Barely Composed is built on a fragmentary style where shrewdly broken lines constantly heighten ambiguity. The most striking feature Fulton’s writing is her maximalist approach to language. In that sense, the book’s title is a taunt to the reader, a challenge: catch me, if you can. Employing virtually every linguistic trick there is, and lighting on themes from art to love to death to time, the poems of Barely Composed demand the reader parse the lines again and again in new and creative ways. It is Alice Fulton’s first new book in more than a decade and in some ways I am still waiting for it because it continues to reveal itself in increasingly exciting ways. Difficulty takes on many forms, and comes with its own rewards.īarely Composed is a difficult piece. Robert Pinsky once wrote against “the stupid, defeatist idea that poetry, especially modern or contemporary poetry, ought to be less ‘difficult.’” After all, he argued, “people still read the poems of Moore and Stevens because they don’t wear out, because they surprise and entice us-and maybe, in part, because they are difficult”. ![]()
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