By the numbers / James Richardson.
2010
PS3568.I3178 B9 2010
Available at Main location
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Details
Title
By the numbers / James Richardson.
Author
ISBN
9781556593208 (pbk.)
1556593201 (pbk.)
1556593201 (pbk.)
Imprint
Port Townsend, Wash. : Copper Canyon Press, c2010.
Description
xi, 111 p. ; 23 cm.
Exhibited
2011
Call Number
PS3568.I3178 B9 2010
Summary
"For James Richardson, poetry is speculative and serious play. By the Numbers captivates with its range of line and movement, its microlyrics, crypto-quatrains, and "ten-second essays," its aphorisms that twist and snap. Drawing from myriad lore--Ovidian and Shakespearean, georgic and scientific--Richardson makes familiar scenes strange enough to provoke startling insights."--P. [4] of cover.
"Richardson is one of the finest poets now writing, and the best contemporary practitioner of the art of aphorism, as this eighth collection of poems and aphorisms will attest. Richardson's aphorisms--of which there are 170 in this book--are nothing short of genius, concise, reflexive, witty, wise, and startlingly true: "Spontaneity takes a few rehearsals," reads one; "Beware of speaking of The Rich as if they were someone else," reads another; "Loving yourself is about as likely as tickling yourself," says a third, and there's much more where these came from. In his poems, Richardson speaks with a world-weary voice that is also at times cautiously optimistic, managing to view the world from intimately personal and omniscient vantage points at the same time. One group of poems tries to take the measure of experience via numbers, letters, and "The stars in order of/ magnitude." Another suite anchored in Greek myths finds new resonance for old stories: "Did a god steal her daughter/ or has she been living all this time in Manhattan ...?" Throughout, Richardson's aphoristic powers resurface, yielding stellar lines. Richardson deserves wider recognition, and this book should earn it."--Publishers Weekly.
"Richardson is one of the finest poets now writing, and the best contemporary practitioner of the art of aphorism, as this eighth collection of poems and aphorisms will attest. Richardson's aphorisms--of which there are 170 in this book--are nothing short of genius, concise, reflexive, witty, wise, and startlingly true: "Spontaneity takes a few rehearsals," reads one; "Beware of speaking of The Rich as if they were someone else," reads another; "Loving yourself is about as likely as tickling yourself," says a third, and there's much more where these came from. In his poems, Richardson speaks with a world-weary voice that is also at times cautiously optimistic, managing to view the world from intimately personal and omniscient vantage points at the same time. One group of poems tries to take the measure of experience via numbers, letters, and "The stars in order of/ magnitude." Another suite anchored in Greek myths finds new resonance for old stories: "Did a god steal her daughter/ or has she been living all this time in Manhattan ...?" Throughout, Richardson's aphoristic powers resurface, yielding stellar lines. Richardson deserves wider recognition, and this book should earn it."--Publishers Weekly.
Note
"A Lannan literary selection"--P. [4] of cover.
Poems.
Poems.
Formatted Contents Note
[Pt.] I. Bit Parts. Northwest passage
In Shakespeare
Special victims unit
Subject, verb, object
Emergency measures
Metallurgy for dummies
Head-on
Iron age
Classic bar scenes : Apollo at happy hour ; Ovidian deposition ; Pygmalion among the young ; Twilight of a God ; Orpheus at last call ; Apollo in age
Zeus : a press conference
State-sponsored
Echo
Bit parts
The God who
[pt.] II. Vectors 3.0 : even more aphorisms and ten-second essays
[pt.] III. By the numbers. By the numbers
Birds in rain
Are we alone? or Physics you can do at home
Prokaryotes
The stars in order of
Origin of language
Songs for senility
Room temperature
[pt.] IV. Small hours. Shore town, winter
Tableau
Postmortem Georgic
Night lights : (1977- ) ; Blackout ; The rich man sotto voce ; To a tea ; Slice of life ; Who has seen the wind ; Red, green, blue ; Star ; Reading light
Roads not taken
Roads taken
End of summer.
In Shakespeare
Special victims unit
Subject, verb, object
Emergency measures
Metallurgy for dummies
Head-on
Iron age
Classic bar scenes : Apollo at happy hour ; Ovidian deposition ; Pygmalion among the young ; Twilight of a God ; Orpheus at last call ; Apollo in age
Zeus : a press conference
State-sponsored
Echo
Bit parts
The God who
[pt.] II. Vectors 3.0 : even more aphorisms and ten-second essays
[pt.] III. By the numbers. By the numbers
Birds in rain
Are we alone? or Physics you can do at home
Prokaryotes
The stars in order of
Origin of language
Songs for senility
Room temperature
[pt.] IV. Small hours. Shore town, winter
Tableau
Postmortem Georgic
Night lights : (1977- ) ; Blackout ; The rich man sotto voce ; To a tea ; Slice of life ; Who has seen the wind ; Red, green, blue ; Star ; Reading light
Roads not taken
Roads taken
End of summer.
Awards
National Book Award finalist, 2010
Record Appears in