------------------------ at Outrider
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Winter
Sky New and Selected Poems, 1968-2008 by Coleman Barks University of Georgia Press, 2008 |
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decades of poet Coleman Barks' work are included in this retrospective,
drawn from seven previously published books and accented by a half
dozen new poems. They are presented in reverse chronological order and
grouped according to the books in which they appeared: Scrapwood
Man
(2007), Tentmaking
(2002),
Club: Granddaughter Poems (2001), Gourd
Seed
(1993), We're
Laughing at the Damage (1977), New Words (1976), The
Juice (1972). |
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This is the first extensive collection of poetry by Barks, who is better known as a translator of Rumi and other mystic poets of Persia. It includes "Just This Once," his best-known poem, published and widely circulated online in the days before the invasion of Iraq. Structured as an open letter to President Bush, it makes a poetic plea for peace and offers a poignant alternative to war: President Bush, before you order air strikes, imagine the first cruise missile as a direct hit on your closest friend. That might be Laura. Then twenty-five other family and friends. There are no survivors. Now imagine some other way to do it. Quadruple the inspectors. Put a thousand and one U.N. people in. Then call for peace activists to volunteer to go to Iraq for two weeks each. Flood that country with well-meaning tourists, people curious about the land that produced the great saints, Gilani, Hallaj, and Rabia. |
One year he let me touch him
under the iron steps One year to see his whole body beneath the trilliums Now her has left a five-foot skin across my stone threshold The great changing we give comes as we slough winter and glide like summer's low-roo diamond-floor of invisible skin "Kingsnake" by Coleman Barks from Tentmaking |
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While the themes
of Barks' poetry do not arise from the natural world as much as they do
in Mary Oliver's work, they are nevertheless deeply rooted in the
cultures and environments of the rural Deep South. In "The Great Blue
Heron" he reflects on his first crane sighting, at the age of 7, before
it was shot from its flight by a tack room attendant: ... but here's the biggest bird I've ever seen, hug, bluish-grey stretching between hemlock and laurel, moving slow against the creekwind, legs and body hanging almost straight down And in the summer of 1945, when two atom bombs were dropped from the sky, he and a friend have a close encounter with a screech owl trapped in a stairwell that connects them to the universal: These birds are pictures of our being alone, at large: light flight, then back to a fearful perch We are such fluttering monsters moving within several shapes, till some appearance surprises While this collection covers a wide range of issues and experiences, the through line is the story of a man like Benjamin Button, aging in reverse and progressing verse by verse toward an understanding of his place in the universe. |
also by Coleman Banks: Scrapwood
Man (2007)
Tentmaking (2002) Club: Granddaughter Poems (2001) Gourd Seed (1993) We're Laughing at the Damage (1977) The Juice (1972) |
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