Curve Away from Stillness (New Directions Paperbook) - Softcover

Allman, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811210812 ISBN 13: 9780811210812

Publisher: New Directions, 1989

Synopsis

In Curve Away from Stillness, John Allman affirms the connections between poetry and science. They are, he says, as "old as the ones between poetry and cosmology, beauty and knowledge, pleasure and speculation." In reading this collection of "Science Poems," we are reminded of a philosophical tradition in literature that, with Lucretius, sees in the power of love the binding force of the universe. Allman's poems, however―meditations on "Physics," "Chemistry," "Biology," essential "Principles," the "Planets"―are grounded in the science of our time, in all its elegance and awesomeness.

Curve Away from Stillness is Allman's fourth book of poetry, his third with New Directions. His previous publications include Scenarios for a Mixed Landscape (1986), speculative reflections on art and nature; the "historical epiphanies" of Clio's Children (1985); and Walking Four Ways in the Wind (Princeton University Press, 1979).

About this title

From the Back Cover

In this book, Jon Allman affirms the connections between poetry and science. They are, he says, as 'old as the once between poetry and cosmology, beauty and knowledge, pleasure and speculation.' In reading this collection of 'Science Poems, ' we are reminded of a philosophical tradition in literature, that, with Lucretius, sees in the power of love the binding force of the universe.

About the Author

John Allman (1935- ) is a contemporary American poet and novelist who spent his childhood in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. In 1943 he moved with his to Astoria, Queens, where he attended William Cullen Bryant High School until dropping out in 1952. He earned his diploma at night school while working as a laboratory technician in the product control labs of Pepsi-Cola. He then enrolled in Brooklyn College, as a pre-med student, but later transferred to Hunter College in the Bronx. After a period of time spent in California, as a technician, he settled on studying the humanities and chose to become a writer. For his MA in English literature and creative writing from Syracuse University, he studied with Donald Dike, Cecil Lang, Philip Booth and Delmore Schwartz. Allman has received The Helen Bulls Prize from Poetry Northwest, a Pushcart Poetry Prize, and two National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships in Poetry (1984 and 1990). His work has been widely published in such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, The American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and The Massachusetts Review.

Edition details

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0811210812
• ISBN 13: 9780811210812
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 83