Synopses & Reviews
A milestone publication of the late Christopher Gilberts poetry, with an introduction by the National Book Award winner Terrance HayesLord, the anguish of my Black block rises up in me
like a grief. My only chance to go beyond being breach—
to resist being quelled as a bit of inner city entropy—
is to speak up for the public which has birthed me.
To build this language house. To make this case. Create.
This loving which lives outside time. Lord, this is time.
—from “Turning into Dwelling”
Christopher Gilberts award-winning Across the Mutual Landscape has become an underground classic of contemporary American poetry. Now reissued and presented with Gilberts never-before-published last manuscript written before his death in 2007, Turning into Dwelling offers new readers the original music and vision of one of our most inventive poets.
Review
Praise for Across the Mutual Landscape
“These poems turn on the convictions and values of the musicians Thelonious Monk and Charlie ‘Bird Parker, and the poets Robert Hayden and Muriel Rukeyser, who heal and instruct . . . They are full of verbal play and the animal and godly qualities of existence.” —Michael S. Harper
“[Gilbert] has the artistry, the energy, and the staying power to make [his career] a richly significant one.” —Denise Levertov
About the Author
Christopher Gilbert is the author of Across the Mutual Landscape, winner of the 1983 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. He died in 2007.