Songlines in Michaeltree: NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS (Illinois Poetry Series) - Hardcover

Harper, Michael S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252021444 ISBN 13: 9780252021442

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2000

Synopsis

A new collection by the celebrated American poet looks back over thirty years to explore themes of love and mourning.

About this title

Review:

10's & Things
55: The Journey Motif In My Sister's Birthday Song June 6, 1998
Abe
Aborigines: Estonia
Achebe At The Bridge
Advice To Clinton (2)
Afterword: A Film
Alice
Alone
American History
Angola: Louisiana
Archives; Cooperstown, N.y.
Arpeggios
Arrival
At The Cemetery
At The Moment
Audio
Bandstand
The Battle Of Saratoga (springs) Revisited
Biafra Blues
Bigger's Blues
'bird Lives': Charles Parker In St. Louis
The Black Angel
Black Cryptogram
Black Spring
Blackjack
Blues Alabama
The Body Polity
The Borning Room
Br'er Sterling And The Rocker
Brother John
Calligraphy; In Memory Of Melvin Dixon
Camp Story
Cinco De Mayo
Clark's Way West: Another Version
A Coltrane Poem: September 23, 1998
Corrected Review: Thereisatreemoreancientthaneden
Crossing Lake Michigan
The Dance Of The Elephants
Day Room: St. Elizabeths Hospital
Dead Oaks
Dear John, Dear Coltrane
Dear Romie: Rock Formation Epistles
Deathwatch
Dining From A Treed Condition, An Historical Survey
Discovery
Double Elegy
Double Sorbet
The Douglass Position, 1863
Dream: Bicentennial, Rochester, N.y.: After F.d. Residence Fire
Driving The Big Chrysler Across The Country Of My Birth
The Drowning Of The Facts Of A Life
Elvin's Blues
'engagements'
The Families Album
Faulkner's Centennial Poem: September 25, 1997
Figments
For Bud
The Founding Fathers In Philadelphia
'frederick, Is God Dead?'
From A Town In Minnesota
The Ghost Of Soulmaking: For Ruth Oppenheim
'going' To The Territory'
Grandfather
Healing Song
Heartblow: Messages
Here Where Coltrane Is
The Hidden Friends Of Frederick Douglass
High Modes: Vision As Ritual: Confirmation
History As Apple Tree
History As Bandages: Polka Dots And Moonbeams
History As Diabolical Maternalism
Homage To Mamie Owens
Homage To The Brown Bomber
Homage To The New World
Hooking
Horse-trading
House On Miramar, San Francisco
How To Forgive The Father Who Screams At His Son
I Was Born In The Same House As My Mother, And Delivered By The Same
If You Don't Force It
In Hayden's Collage
Intentional Suffering
Irish Suit
John Hope Franklin
Journey Through The Interior
Judicial Assignment
Kin
Kneading
Landfill
Last Affair: Bessie's Blues Song
Letter Of Athenaeum Couplets In Memory Of William Strickland
The Loon
The Love Letters Of Helen Pitts Douglass
Love Medley: Patrice Cuchulain
Love Postcard While Listening To 'autumn Leaves'
Madimba: Gwendolyn Brooks
Marginalia
Martin's Blues
Matchbook: The Spinnaker: Sausalito
The Meaning Of Protest
Meditation On Auburn Prison: For Harriet Tubman
Messages As Translation
The Militance Of A Photograph In The Passbook Of A Bantu .. Detention
Molasses And The Three Witches
A Mother Speaks: The Algiers Motel Incident, Detroit
Movin' Wes
Mr. P.c.
Mr. P.c., 1942-98, Bard College
My Book On Trane (1)
My Book On Trane (2)
My Father's Face
My Mother's Bible
A Narrative Of The Life And Times Of John Coltrane: Played By Himself
Near The White House
The Negatives
News From Fort Ancient
Newsletter From My Mother
The Night Of Frost
Nightmare Begins Responsibility
Notes On Making: The Heroic Pattern Updated: 1997
Oak
Obscurity
Odd Facts About The Painter: On Causality
On First Listening To Native Dancer By Wayne Shorter
Parable
Paradise: Gihon River, Johnson, Vermont
Patrice Lumumba
Paul Laurence Dunbar: 1872-1906
Peace On Earth
Peace Plan: Meditation On The Nine Stages Of 'peacemaking' As A
The Pen
Photographs
Photographs: A Vision Of Massacre
Photographs: Negatives
Pocahontas: Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The Poet's Voice
Polls
Portrait Of James Weldon Johnson
Prayer: Mt. Hood And Environs
Preaching At The Funeral: Songs Of The Choir In Silent Prayer
Prestige
Psychophotos Of Hampton
Pullman Pass
Pulp Notes
Queries To Alice Elizabeth: An Obituary, Palm Sunday, 1998
Quilting Bee: Mecklenburg County
Rat Fever: History As Hallucination
Reading Isherwood's Letter Circa 1959-63
Reading Jean Toomer's Cane Again
Relaxing With R.b.s. Over Tunes
Release: Kind Of Blue
Remember Mexico
Reuben, Reuben
Rhythmic Arrangements: On Prosody
Rose: May 17, 1998
Rumors
Shaharazad
'sinatra': 1915-98
Sled
Solo
Song: I Want A Witness
Songlines From A Tessera (e) Journal: Romare Bearden, 1912-88
Sorbet
Spiritual
Stepto's Veils
Strands
Studs
Stutterer
Sugarloaf
Thimble
This Is My Son's Song: 'ungie, Hi Ungie'
To An Old Man Twiddlin' Thumbs
Tongue-tied In Black And White
Trays: A Portfolio
Tree Fever
Triple Sorbet
An Umbrella Of Maple Leaves
Uplift From A Dark Tower
Utility Room
Village Blues
Voice
We Assume: On The Death Of Our Son, Reuben Masai Harper
Wizardry: The Poetic Saga In Song Of Gwendolyn Brooks
The Writer's Desk
Zocalo
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

From Publishers Weekly:

"Our mode is our jam session/ of tradition,/ past in this present moment/ articulated, blown through/ with endurance,/ an unreaching extended/ improvised love of past masters...." Throughout his 30-year career, Harper has eschewed neither the personal, political nor the lyrical, but consistently forged a middle road from the multiple intersections of memory and experience, music and language, oppression and achievement. As this welcome retrospective demonstrates, Harper's progressive, improvisatory power respects a variety of traditions in the arts. His elegiac meditations on jazz legends such as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Bud Powell are well known, and his use of repetition and lyric fragmentation displays the influence of not only that supercharged idiom, but the slower-paced traditions of African-American blues, gospel, and folk music. Harper's writing, however, derives only in part from these traditions, and the many finely honed narratives in this collection display the influence of poets as diverse of Yeats, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Elizabeth Bishop. Indeed, the strength of the poems frequently resides in their uncanny ability to synthesize disparate influences into a singular American voice: "The last view is the best,/ from the terrace overhang,/ with a toothbrush,/ seeing rock gardens and roses/ pool in cascading fountains:/ the Renaissance built on slave trading,/ Etienne proud of his lineage,/ Booker T's bookings humbled his beginnings,/ the abstract masks giving off power,/ its conjured being dynamized in my skin." A testament to the scope of Harper's ambitions and masteries, this volume includes some engaging new work, helpful notes, and two brief essays, and should solidify Harper's reputation as an engaging, accessible, uncompromising keeper of the flame. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0252021444
• ISBN 13: 9780252021442
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408