About the Book
This Time includes 216 pages of prose poetry on politics, music (Bach and Coltrane), eros, art (Goya and van Gogh), philosophy (Nietzsche and Levinas), and the quotidian (daily bread & news that stays news).
About the Author :
Robert Gibbons' work transcends genres. Both Guy Davenport and Marjorie Perloff compared his work to Rimbaud's. Sam Hamill wrote, Anyone familiar with Thelonius Monk's music cannot help but feel the quirky syncopations of Gibbons' mind fitting perfectly with those of the pianist. At sixty-five years old, he's still walking around the waterfront taking in the world, or at the desk in the back room writing, often peering underneath for the Feminine, the image of the Hidden, embodiment of Beauty, signature of Peace, source of Love, and so on.
Review :
I've said before in Evergreen that surrealism still provides the dominant impulse in American poetry, perhaps because its ambitious, bottom-line program -- that everyday life should be permeated with the playfulness and creative spirit of art - seems further from realization than ever before. And this influence is felt even by poets who are not avowed surrealists, such as Robert Gibbons, whose latest book can be seen as taking up and reconstructing prominent surrealist themes, just as an avowed American surrealist, Allan Graubad, perhaps the premier American poet in this style, can extend some traditional surrealist tropes in unexpected and psychically satisfying ways. First to Gibbons. To me, the identifying trait of this writing is how his verse is filled with splendid, deeply won concatenations where his observations on, say, a walk along the Portland harbor ties together with his readings and knowledge into a terse, bone-solid commentary on his and our lives. But, taking this aspect in a wider context throws me back to the surrealist idea of objective chance. This concept refers to chance events, seeming coincidences, that are imbued with a near-holy significance. An example of this occurs when Breton meets Nadja, the mysterious woman who becomes the center of his novel. A fragment of a dream and some recent readings cross with and foretold what would happen in their accidental rendezvous. The thing about such instances of objective chance is that, for the full-blooded surrealist, they are to be awaited and fulsomely welcomed as signal occurrences. Gibbons put this concept in a new light by fashioning his life - filling it with deep reading, solitude, a rapt involvement with nature and close attention to artistic masters (from Bach to Coltrane to Goya to Klee to Bergson to Kristeva), the droop of the day, and the moods of his partner - so that objective chances are a daily occurrence. In other words, such vital, unprompted coincidences are found opening spontane
""This Time," Robert Gibbons' tour de force, showcases the talents of this artist. Ear for language, eye for detail, ability to touch both intellect and emotion at the same time distinguishes his work. 'I'm going to try to shove the tail into the mouth of the snake of Time' he writes in "Snake of Time." The collection works hard to fulfill that aim using references to music, art, nature, and philosophy to startle the reader into lifting one's eyes to where they are in Time, using language to enhance our ability to see more clearly and perceptively. This is a book to be read slowly, carefully. A journey, creating for the reader a sense of Timelessness permission to undertake personal exploration and reflection. One completes that journey a better observer and with a deeper appreciation of the world with Gibbons as the guide."
---David Ferriero, former Director of the New York Public Library
""This Time", Robert Gibbons' tour de force, showcases the talents of this artist. Ear for language, eye for detail, ability to touch both intellect and emotion at the same time distinguishes his work. 'I'm going to try to shove the tail into the mouth of the snake of Time' he writes in "Snake of Time". The collection works hard to fulfill that aim using references to music, art, nature, and philosophy to startle the reader into lifting one's eyes to where they are in Time, using language to enhance our ability to see more clearly and perceptively. This is a book to be read slowly, carefully. A journey, creating for the reader a sense of Timelessness permission to undertake personal exploration and reflection. One completes that journey a better observer and with a deeper appreciation of the world with Gibbons as the guide."
---David Ferriero, former Director of the New York Public Library
