| The Reservoir: Poems Contributor(s): Stonecipher, Donna (Author) |
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ISBN: 0820324639 ISBN-13: 9780820324630 Publisher: University of Georgia Press OUR PRICE: $18.86 Product Type: Paperback Published: November 2002 Annotation: In Donna Stonecipher's debut collection of poems, a continual renovation of prosepoem forms unites narrative with lyricism to invent a luxurious little country, where the elegance of architecture, specifically European, houses a purely American spirit. "Anything seen through an arch is instantly picturesque, " declares the first line of "Album." Form renders meaning and makes beauty possible, and yet the arch is an artificial imposition on the scene. Likewise, birds, butterflies, and a swan flit through the poems, symbols of the artifice of ornamentation that dazzles in the distance but disappoints upon closer inspection; in these poems, a bird in the bush is worth two in the hand. It is the reservoir, artificial but functional, beautiful only incidentally, that, "placid through the seasons, may save us." The union of narrative (function) and lyricism (beauty) in the reservoir, both reserving and reserved, results in poems that have much to tell, and even more to hold in, leaving the reader with the impression of secrets partly revealed, partly kept in reserve as mercurial lifeblood. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | American - General |
| Dewey: 811.6 |
| LCCN: 2002006737 |
| Series: Contemporary Poetry |
| Physical Information: 0.3" H x 6.46" W x 8.48" (0.28 lbs) 88 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In Donna Stonecipher's debut collection of poems, a continual renovation of prose-poem forms unites narrative with lyricism to invent a luxurious little country, where the elegance of architecture, specifically European, houses a purely American spirit. "Anything seen through an arch is instantly picturesque," declares the first line of "Album." Form renders meaning and makes beauty possible, and yet the arch is an artificial imposition on the scene. Likewise, birds, butterflies, and a swan flit through the poems, symbols of the artifice of ornamentation that dazzles in the distance but disappoints upon closer inspection; in these poems, a bird in the bush is worth two in the hand. It is the reservoir, artificial but functional, beautiful only incidentally, that, "placid through the seasons, may save us." The union of narrative (function) and lyricism (beauty) in the reservoir, both reserving and reserved, results in poems that have much to tell, and even more to hold in, leaving the reader with the impression of secrets partly revealed, partly kept in reserve as mercurial lifeblood. |
Contributor Bio(s): Stonecipher, Donna: - DONNA STONECIPHER grew up in Seattle and Teheran. She lived in Prague from 1994 to 1998 and graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2001. Her poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Field, Indiana Review, New American Writing, and Web Conjunctions, among other journals. |