The Hunger Wall - Hardcover

Ragan, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802115764 ISBN 13: 9780802115768

Publisher: Grove Press, 1995

A critically acclaimed poet explores the parallels between riot-torn Los Angeles and Prague, the crux of the newly divided Czechoslovakia, reflecting on the nature of divisions--ethnic, cultural, and political--in resonant, delicately crafted verse.

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From the Inside Flap:

In 1992, critically acclaimed poet James Ragan was in Los Angeles when riots exploded across racial and class lines. That same year he was also living in Prague when Czechoslovakia divided into two separate nations, motivated by the principles of "nationalism." This odd coincidence forms the crux of his new, eagerly anticipated book of poetry.

The poems in The Hunger Wall, named for a wall near the Prague Castle, take these two cultural sensibilities that seem worlds apart and explore the subtle nuances of their unlikely similarities. In beautifully crafted and metaphorically rich language, Ragan studies what it means to set a "border," whether it be political, racial, or economic. The Hunger Wall examines a continually changing world--a world of shifting cultural identities in which the widening gap between the rich and the poor is dangerously explosive.

"James Ragan's poems are full of arresting collocations and striking phrases. Sometimes the latter are mysterious, and sometimes (as in 'the mimosa breathing the wind's still spirit') they take a fresh look at some aspect of the world. 'Audienea,' from which I have just quoted, is one of the most satisfying poems in this distinctive book."--Richard Wilbur

"In present-day poetry, few things are more anticipated than this book by a poet who dominates the art of image, the art of poetic line, and the art of poetic narration to the level where the poems form a permanent stream of revelations."--Miroslav Holub

"These poems seek the core of feeling in the intertwined personal and political dramas of eastern Europe and southern California. They walk carefully in a hardbitten time, recording the lives and places that tell of the struggle between beauty and evil, and of the rage for identity in this near-millennial period. Here is the lush lyricism of a hungry eye and an open heart."--Marvin Bell

"A testament to universal brotherhood, a celebration. He is my brother."--Yevgeny Yevtushenko

"James Ragan's poetry lights the passage to the larger world of global citizenship."--William Matthews

"In Jim Ragan's poetry, there is a lyrical fusing of innocence and wisdom. It is this juxtaposition that makes his work so exhilarating."--Studs Terkel

"James Ragan's poetry is splendidly candid, original, energized, connected to the real world, honed, humane, connected to a series of finely articulated voices, full of nuances, of music, of idioms he's heard and invented."--Michael S. Harper

James Ragan has lived in Paris, Prague, London, Athens, and Beijing and has been honored here and abroad as an ambassador of poetry. In 1985, he was one of three Americans, along with Robert Bly and Bob Dylan, invited to perform at the First International Poetry Festival in Moscow. He is the recipient of numerous poetry honors, including two Fulbright professorships, the Emerson Poetry Prize, two Pushcart Prize nominations, and the Poetry Society of America Gertrude Claytor Award. He has also been a finalist for the Walt Whitman Center Book Award and the PEN Center West Poetry Prize. He is the author of In the Talking Hours, Womb-Weary, and Lusions, and co-editor of Yevgeny Yevtushenko: Collected Poems 1952-1990. His plays include Saints and Commedia, first produced by Raymond Burr in the United States and later in the Soviet Union. Ragan is the director of the Gradute Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.

From the Back Cover:

The poems in The Hunger Wall, named for the wall near the Prague Castle, take these two cultural sensibilities that seem worlds apart and explore the subtle nuances of their unlikely similarities. In beautifully crafted and metaphorically rich language, Ragan studies what it means to set a "border", whether it be political, racial, or economic. The Hunger Wall examines a continually changing world - a world of shifting cultural identities in which the widening gap between the rich and the poor is dangerously explosive.

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