Synopses & Reviews
Whether watching men releasing caged birds at dawn in New York City or a ladder of cranes rising from a field in Manitoba, Tom Sexton is a keen observer of the interconnectedness of the natural and human worlds. The former Alaska poet laureate takes to the road in this new collection, wending a lyrical and at times mystical path between Alaska and New England.
Travelers along the way include the fabled wolf of Gubbio, old and lame and long past his taming encounter with Saint Francis of Assisi, and Chinese poet Li Bai chanting to a Yangtze River dolphin. Yet, while Sextons journey crosses bordersand occasionally centurieshis ultimate destination is always the landscape and people of Alaska. A Ladder of Cranes showcases Sextons mastery of both traditional forms and free verse. The tensions of his formal influences, Chinese and European, force the reader to experience these spare lines and tight observations in stunning new ways.
Review
"A writer of rare vision and poetic eloquence."--Robert Michael Pyle,
New York Times Book Review"Haines has always written with a beautiful ear. His early work distinguished itself by combining lucid images from the natural world with a dreamy inwardness. An imagination of solitude inhabited a solitary landscape; if the sensibility relished an ascetic purity, the body presented itself in the mouth's pleasure of vowel and in the eye's exactness. The later work ... retains these qualities-- sense and imagination-- while it adds more of the world and more of Haines' rigorous intelligence. He writes with a hard instrument on a hard surface, making no disposable verses."--Donald Hall, The Nation
"His poems require concentration, rereading, and knowledge beyond what they impart, but the extra effort is richly, religiously rewarded."--Ray Olson, Booklist
"If one views Haines' poetic development as a journey from the specific geography of the Alaskan wilderness to the uncharted places of the spirit, then that journey is now complete."--Dana Gioia
Review
"Through precise language and observation, these poems suggest a profound way of living and responding freshly to each day. In addition, the book makes a powerful statement for the preservation of our threatened environment."
Review
“Natural beauty is the essence of what you get from Tom Sexton. ‘The aim of all art,’ another poem wryly says, ‘… is to lead us toward light / even when the artist’s eye is cold or dark.’ These few tightly made lines of verse go to the essence of what philosophers and artists from all the ages have tried millions of words to explain. . . . These poems, like stars, offer extremely well-made flickers of light to whoever tends to look up at the sky rather than downward to the darkness.”
Review
"Sexton is clearly at the top of his game in this book. One senses the hand of a master with pen poised ready to capture wolf, bird, landscape and people and
weave them into zen-like sketches."
Synopsis
When watching old men releasing their caged birds at dawn in New York City or a ladder of cranes rising from a field in Manitoba or even willow catkins in Alaska, Sexton is a keen observer of the interconnectedness of the natural and human worlds. Here we meet the wolf of Gubbio when he is old and lame and Li Bai chanting to a Yangtze River dolphin centuries ago, but no matter where he takes us we always come back to the landscape and people of Alaska; to cloudberries in a marsh and a wedding in the village of Ninlichik where he held a crown of gold over the head of the bride. Sexton carefully notes it all in his familiar practice of traditional forms and free verse. The tensions of his formal influences, Chinese and European, force the reader to experience these spare lines and tight observations in new ways.
About the Author
Born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1924,
John Haines studied at the National Art School, the American University, and the Hans Hoffmann School of Fine Art. He homesteaded in Alaska for over twenty years. He is the author of several major collections of poetry; a collection of reviews, essays, interviews, and autobiography,
Living Off the Country (University of Michigan Press, 1981); and a memoir,
The Stars, the Snow, the Fire (Graywolf Press, 1989). He has received numerous awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Alaska Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, and most recently a Western State Arts Federation Lifetime Achievement Award and a Lenore Marshall/
The Nation poetry prize for
New Poems 1980-1988 (Story Line Press, 1990). He is currently a freelance writer and teacher and still spends part of each year in Alaska.