PRAISE FOR TOMAŽ ŠALAMUN "[Šalamun] remains a great postwar central European poet, which means that his work is a battle to give equal power to the cheeky voice and the soaring voice, avoiding always the obvious and the prosaically meaningful, making sure that nothing can make poetry happen, and that poetry in turn can become more important than history or politics or mere philosophy."—Colm Tóibín, The Guardian (London)
"All of [Šalamun's work] has provocation and imaginative intensity and aesthetic risk."—Robert Hass "Salamun has become an influence, and a mentor, for plenty of young American poets. One reason lies in Salamun's postmodern mix of giddy and global with the earthy retrospect he takes from his homeland...[He] makes his new collection a whirlwind tour of sites and moods..." -- Publishers Weekly "[T]here's a music being played here--distinct rhythms, a consistently dream-like quality, a contrapuntal balance of acerbic humor and amorphous dread...you float along the poet's twisting strem, not knowing or caring where you are, where you're going or where you've been." -- Booklist —
Description
Inspired by Rimbaud and Ashbery, the Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun is now inspiring the younger generation of American poets—and Woods and Chalices will secure his place in the ranks of influential, experimental twenty-first-century writers. Šalamun’s strengths are on display here: innocence and obscenity, closely allied; a great historical reach; and questions, commands, and statements of identity that challenge all norms and yet seem uncannily familiar and right— “I’m molasses, don’t forget that.”
Coat of Arms
The wet sun stands on dark bricks.
Through the king’s mouth we see teeth.
He sews lips. The owl moves its head.
She’s tired, drowsy and black.
She doesn’t glow in gold like she’d have to.
Genres
Pages96
Released2014
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
ISBN9780544343665
SellerHarperCollins
About the author(s)
Tomaž Šalamun was born in 1941 in Zagreb. He has published over thirty books of poetry and frequently teaches at American universities, including Pittsburgh, Richmond, and Texas.
