Synopses & Reviews
This newest collection of poems from Tomaz Salamun is exuberant, ambitious and full of surprises. Here the devil is encountered and understood"I see the devils head, people, I see his whole body
he longs for innocence, as we do"; here the poet juggles many tones, languages and countries; desire is evoked as both frustrating and exhilarating"Im watered by longing, knocking my/ head into the wall, on the ground, or I burn, burn,/ folded up on the couch"; and memory comes back to remind us of all the laws and experiences of childhood: "Once again you are let loose in the sea/ only after five oclock in the afternoon to take/ a dose of sunlight like the ticking of the clock." At once daring and clear-voiced,
The Book for My Brother is an extraordinary achievement.
Bio: Tomaz Salamun has published more than thirty books of poetry. His work has been translated into almost every European language. He lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Praise:"One of the indispensable poets of the era...A poet whom one feels has a heart so open and an ear so pure, he might have answers in even the darkest times." --Jorie Graham
"The most celebrated Slovenian poet of his generation..his poems manifest a wry, deprecative humor, alternately acerbic and playful; a gift for remarkable images and detail, both surreal and quotidian; and an acute sensitivity to the astounding variety of the world and of history." --Boston Review
Review
PRAISE FOR TOMAŽ ŠALAMUN
"One of the indispensable poets of the era . . . A poet who one feels has a heart so open and an ear so pure, he might have answers in even the darkest times."
-JORIE GRAHAM, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry
"Šalamun's poems manifest a wry, deprecative humor, alternately acerbic and playful; a gift for remarkable images and detail, both surreal and quotidian; and an acute sensitivity to the astounding variety of the world and of history."-BOSTON REVIEW
Synopsis
This newest collection of poems from Tomaž Šalamun is exuberant, ambitious, and full of surprises. Here the devil is encountered and understood-
I see the devil's head, people, I see his whole body . . .
he longs for innocence, as we do.
Here the poet juggles many tones, languages, and countries. Desire is evoked as both frustrating and exhilarating-
I'm watered by longing, knocking my
head into the wall, on the ground, or I burn, burn,
folded up on the couch.
And memory comes back to remind us of the laws and experiences of childhood-
Once again you are let loose in the sea
only after five o'clock in the afternoon to take
a dose of sunlight like the ticking of the clock.
At once daring and clear-voiced, The Book for My Brother is an extraordinary achievement.
Synopsis
The work of this "eminent, still-wild spirit of Central Europe" (Publishers Weekly) continues to electrify. In The Blue Tower, language is re-made with tenderness and abandon: "Rommel was kissing heavens dainty hands and yet / from his airplane above the Sahara my uncle / Rafko Perhauc still blew him to bits." There is an effervescence and a sense of freedom to Salamuns poetry that has made him an inspiration to successive generations of American poets, "a poetic bridge between old European roots and the American adventure" (Associated Press). Trivial and monumental, beautiful and grotesque, healing, ferocious, mad: The Blue Tower is an essential book.
About the Author
Tomaž Šalamun was born in 1941 in Zagreb. He has published over thirty books of poetry and frequently teaches at American universities, including Pittsburgh, Richmond, and Texas.