The Connoisseur of Alleys - Softcover

Tabios, Eileen R

9780996427517: The Connoisseur of Alleys

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0996427511 ISBN 13: 9780996427517

Publisher: Marsh Hawk Press, 2016

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Poetry. From the Foreword:

"A phrase from Comte de Lautr�amont's prose poem Les Chants de Maldoror (1869) has been used by many as a definition of surrealism: 'the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella.' Such fanciful and bizarre juxtaposition is one of the many sources of beauty and the sublime in THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS. Sentences and lines resurrected from the earlier works resonate and reverberate with each other in a preordained fashion so that each poem ebbs and flows, builds to a crescendo, echoing each of the other poems' ebbs, flows, and crescendos. There is certainly 'chance meeting' in the way Tabios's text collides with itself but there is nothing chance about the delicacy and beauty that comes from those collisions.

These poems are, to borrow from Whitman again, 'large and contain multitudes.' They are a striking tribute to art and to poetry—both Tabios's own earlier work and, really, all poetry—underlining and emphasizing for ourselves our own humanity and grace. Again, a random quotation:

I forgot the damp eyes were mine...I forgot that if you call an island 'Isla Mujeres,' half of the population will be anguished...I forgot to be human is to be forgiven...I forgot the taste of your mouth was song of licorice...

I forgot. And in forgetting, I remembered. Excruciatingly and exquisitely. May we all forget and remember so eloquently and elegantly."—Vince Gotera

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About the Author

Eileen R. Tabios loves books, and has released more than 20 print, five electronic and one CD poetry collections; an art essay collection; a "collected novels" book; a poetry essay/interview anthology; a short story collection; and two experimental biographies. INVENT(ST)ORY (Dos Madres Press, 2015) is her second of a series of Selected/Collected Poems focused on poetic form; her first Selected, THE THORN ROSARY (Marsh Hawk Press, 2010), focused on a 12-year exploration of the prose poem form. She has also exhibited visual art and visual poetry in the United States and Asia. Recipient of the Philippines' National Book Award for Poetry for her first poetry collection, she has crafted an award-winning body of work that is unique for melding ekphrasis with transcolonialism. Her poems have been translated into seven languages as well as computer- generated hybrid languages, Paintings, Video, Drawings, Visual Poetry, Mixed Media Collages, Kali Martial Arts, Music, Modern Dance and Sculpture. She also has edited, co-edited or conceptualized ten anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays in addition to serving as editor or guest editor for various literary journals. She maintains a biblioliphic blog, "Eileen Verbs Books"; edits Galatea Resurrects, a popular poetry review; steers the literary and arts publisher Meritage Press; and frequently curates thematic online poetry projects including LinkedIn Poetry Recommendations (a recommended list of contemporary poetry books).

Review

These poems are, to borrow from Whitman..., large and contain multitudes. They are a striking tribute to art and to poetry both Tabios s own earlier work and, really, all poetry underlining and emphasizing for ourselves our own humanity and grace. --Vince Gotera, Editor North American Review

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