Recollections of Being: (Salt Modern Poets)

This new book by Nathaniel Tarn contains two series of “domestic poems”; a set of poems about New Mexico, and a set of lyrical poems on contemporary issues: philosophical, environmental and political. They range from simple to complex; use varying meters and page lay-outs from closed to open – but the voice, developed over 50 years is always uniquely recognizable.

Table of Contents:
I Home One Home One: One Home One: Two Home One: Three Home One: Four Home One: Five Home One: Six Home One: Seven Ii Place: Mainly New Mexico Caja del Río, New Mexico Ventanas de Oro / Windows of Gold White-out, Pojoaque River El Ultimo / The Last Man Vuelo Guatemala-Managua, Enero 1988 / G-M Flight, 01.88 El Padre de un Sólo Hijo / The Father of an Only Son Old Man Weeping Cibola, or the Cities of Gold Hawk’s Place, Lobo Canyon, New Mexico Mountain Bluebird, Colorado Coming Down California Kluane, the Yukon000 Sense of Achievement, Bluff, Utah Sun’s Clouds Waterhole, Breasts, Root Iii Recollections Of Being Shell Gravitational Waves Dogs Dreaming The Courtship Clothes Recollections of Being Siempre Mas Invisible (One) / More & More Invisible (One) Angel, with Sword From: Muertos / the Dead Assia Father Holocaust Okigbo No Icarus Body in Glory Azucar Amarga / Bitter Sugar Ancestors For Gene Frumkin: His Old Man Swimmer Burial Plot `Tention ! Her Cadences For Mister Irby, `Merican Master, upon his call steps: word Impromptu (Become Air) On Finishing Mariani’s Outrageously Long Life of W.C.W. Iv Home Two (Domestic Poems) War Poems, Yet Again 1] A Marsyas Effect 2] The Fire Season 3] The Asphyxiation The Book of Nudes Home Two (Domestic Poems) 1] For a Living Mother 2] Windows of Moment 3] Signification Ergo Meaning 4] The Trip 5] At Lammermoor 6] Wozzek 7] Recall 8] The Why of It 9] Religion One O One 10] The Alternative 11] To be a Poet 12] “Gold” and “Blood”

About the Author :
Nathaniel Tarn poet, translator, critic, anthropologist, has led a distinguished literary and academic career studying and/or teaching at the Universities of Cambridge, Paris, Chicago, London, SUNY Buffalo, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Jilin (P.R.C.). Among some 35 books are The Beautiful Contradictions (Random House); Lyrics for the Bride of God (New Directions); Selected Poems: 1950-2000 (Wesleyan). He was founding editor of Cape Editions & Cape Goliard, London-New York, in the late Sixties. He lives near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Review :
In book after book, Nathaniel Tarn has traced the feelings, thoughts and rituals that establish what and where we think we are. As a trained anthropologist, Tarn has a sophisticated understanding of ritual structures that shape communities. As a poet his interior testimonies argue for the irreducible authority of moods that resist all collation. -- Joseph Donahue First Intensity Tarn's contribution to contemporary poetry is of particular importance since it is so informed by his studies and fieldwork in anthropology. This links him very closely with the ethnopoetics of Jerome Rothenberg; the multicultural scope of Olson & Paz; the historical breadth of Pound, Eliot & Blaser; the scientifc interests of Zukofsky, McDiarmid and Rukeyser; the visionary intensity of [a] Maria Sabina. That all this should be embodied in the work of a single individual is quite extraordinary. -- John Olson American Book Review