Description
Poetry. "A FURNACE IN THE SHADOWS is much more than a new collection of poems by Paul Pines, or even a 'selected poems.' It is a body of work—a man's life, embodied in a lifetime's work. From the first poems here, written in the 1960s, when in his early twenties the poet set sail like a latter day Melville. He is a poet of high poetic ambition, like his honored masters, Paul Blackburn, Robert Duncan, William Bronk, Lorca, Yeats—poets in the ancient tradition of transcendental lyricism. One of the most amazing aspects of his work is the consistency of his voice and the clarity of his project over more than half a century. His voice and ambition, like his lyrical gift, were there at the start, and here they are at the end of this extraordinary book—toughened but not hardened by age and still sweetly dignified and clear-eyed. Paul Pines remains wise and deep beyond his years, no matter how old he grows. This is a book to treasure and constantly revisit, like a lifelong friend."—Russell Banks
Author Bio
Paul Pines grew up in Brooklyn and passed the early 60s on the Lower East Side of New York. He spent 65-66 in Vietnam, after which he drove a taxi and tended bar until he opened his jazz club, The Tin Palace, in 1973. It became the setting for his novel The Tin Angel (Morrow, 1983). Redemption (Editions du Rocher, 1997), a second novel, is set against the genocide of Guatemalan Mayans. His memoir, My Brother's Madness (Curbstone Press, 2007), explores the unfolding of intertwined lives. He has published several books of poetry: Onion; Hotel Madden Poems; Pines Songs; Breath; ADRIFT ON BLINDING LIGHT (Ikon, Inc., 2003); TAXIDANCING (Ikon, Inc., 2007); LAST CALL AT THE TIN PALACE (Marsh Hawk Press, 2009); REFLECTIONS IN A SMOKING MIRROR (Dos Madres Press, 2011); DIVINE MADNESS (Marsh Hawk Press, 2012); NEW ORLEANS VARIATIONS & PARIS OUROBOROS (Dos Madres Press, 2013); FISHING ON THE POLE STAR (Dos Madres Press, 2014); MESSAGE FROM THE MEMOIRIST (Dos Madres Press, 2015); CHARLOTTE SONGS (Marsh Hawk Press, 2015); and GATHERING SPARKS (Marsh Hawk Press, 2017). Pines is the editor of Juan Gelman's selected poems translated by Hardie St. Martin, Dark Times/ Filled with Light (Open Letters Press, 2012). Composer Daniel Asia's settings of Pines' poems appear on Songs from the Page of Swords, Breath in a Ram's Horn, and Purer Than Purest Pure (BBC Singers) on the Summit label. Asia's 5th Symphony, recorded by the Pilsen SO, features poems by Pines and Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. Paul Pines conducted workshops for the National Writers Voice and lectured for the National Endowment for the Humanities. A fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Ossabaw Foundation, and Virginia Center, he was also a recipient of an Artists' Fellowship, N.Y.S. Foundation for the Arts. Pines died June 27, 2018, just as A FURNACE IN THE SHADOWS - SELECTED POEMS (Dos Madres Press) was about to go to press.
Author City: GLENS FALLS, NY USA