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Original Essays | June 27, 2009

All posts by Fran Cannon Slayton On Wakes and Rum (and Coke)

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"Unfortunately, I've been to my fair share of wakes." Continue »

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    When the Whistle Blows

    Fran Cannon Slayton
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From Root to Flower

by Paul Friedrich

From Root to Flower Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Paul Friedrich, a poet who is also a professor of anthropology, linguistics, and literature, begins this collection with Thoreau's claim that the "narrowness" of his experience confines him to talking about himself. But Friedrich's way of talking about himself, like Thoreau's, means talking about others - people whose sad and happy moments he has witnessed, poets he admires, places and communities in the United States, Mexico, India, and Europe of which he has become a part, to which he has lent his voice. This is a book of a passionate, empathic, and compassionate traveler, a solitary voice with remarkable social depth, a book that had to be poetry. It will be a discovery for those familiar with Friedrich's studies on Aphrodite or on music in Russian poetry; and it will be a delight for lovers of poetry who have not heard this voice before.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
t.bartscherer, May 15, 2006 (view all comments by t.bartscherer)
This is a work of bold imagination, patient craftsmanship, and a rare kind of wisdom that blends worldly discernment and hard-headedness with contagious joy. Friedrich is a keen and sympathetic observer of the ways of nature and the human heart. His volume teems with knowledge won from long study (literary, linguistic, anthropological, biological), but the lyric imperative masters this erudition. The best poems emerge from the poet's saturated mind like fine crystals -- solid, condensed, glimmering, enduring. The book can be read as a set of intertwining odysseys: the migration of birds, the life-cycles of plants, travel through cities, the trajectories of love affairs, the passage from conception to birth. And while the poems are not sequenced chronologically, certain repeating motifs and settings (the death of a sibling, the birth of children; New England, Europe, Mexico) signal an overarching narrative, a life's journey recounted in discrete moments that together image the whole. The persona behind these poems betrays the sharp eyes and ears of a naturalist, the passions of a romantic, a scholar's meticulousness, an adventurer's heart, and the wise retrospect of advanced years. Yet for all this variety a single voice emerges, vital and inimitable. If you're into poetry, or into life, this volume deserves a place on your shelf.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780977297429
Author:
Friedrich, Paul
Publisher:
Virtual Artists Collective
Subject:
American - General
Publication Date:
February 2006
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
104
Dimensions:
900x600x25 36
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