Description
The “thirteen short poems” of the title are lyric and meditative verse concerning the experience of aging and the consolation of memory in a variety of contexts that evoke, among others, Goethe and Schiller, Shakespeare, Yves Bonnefoy, Antonio Machado, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Peter Taylor. The “Draft of XXX Sonnets in Prose” derives its title from Ezra Pound’s Draft of XXX Cantos and enters into dialogue with a wide cast of characters, primarily Geoffrey Hill, Lyn Hejinian, and Marie Étienne, all of whom also have written “sonnets” in prose. In the background, and sometimes stepping forward, is the philosopher Stanley Rosen. The prosodic rule of the thirty units in this cycle is simple: There is no rule; there is only the number fourteen.
Poetry.
Author Bio
John Matthias has been publishing poetry, criticism, memoirs, plays, and translations since the appearance of his first book in 1970. He taught Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Notre Dame for nearly fifty years and has been Visiting Fellow in Poetry at Clare Hall, Cambridge. Among his recent books, LIVING WITH A VISIONARY (Dos Madres Press, 2021) takes its title from his New Yorker memoir about his wife Diana's struggle with Parkinson's disease that was widely read in 2021, while SOME WORDS ON THOSE WARS (Dos Madres Press, 2021) provides the social, military, and political context for "Kedging," a long poem about her distinguished British family. That poem, in turn, leads directly to "The Scent of Smoke," the first selection in the present book.
Author City: SOUTH BEND, IN USA