A Poverty of Words Frederick Pollack 9781632750198 Books
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"If you've never read this poet, prepare for one of the greatest breakthroughs in your reading life. Yes, Frederick Pollack is that good." ~Robert McDowell (Co-Founder and editor, Story Line Press)
"I enjoy Fred Pollack's poems, and consider them necessary because they do what poetry should do, grapple with the important. When I dwell on his poems, I can see the images leave the page and come to life." ~Daniel J. Langton (Professor, SF State; winner, Edgar Allan Poe Award)
"Pollack has a talent for lines that will draw you up short. It's the kind of thing you might think couldn't be sustained through the sheer volume of poetry in this collection, but you'd be wrong. Every poem deserves a second look." ~Krishan Coupland (Editor, Neon Literary Magazine)
A Poverty of Words Frederick Pollack 9781632750198 Books
Frederick Pollack begins his poem “Ice” with the following lines:If you stand long enough
By the ice in the crosswalk,
Seeking without success
A way round,
Shadows will come.
There have been a very few poets, in these last 75 years or so – W.H. Auden, Philip Larkin, Czeslaw Milosz, and Frederick Seidel - to name several - who have, in light of their own dark clarities, avoided them – and continued to face the ice… And these shadows are bringing solace, a stepping past that particular, unhappy, unworkable vision…
What are these “shadows?” Well - in contemporary poetry itself now – these shadows are the illusions of fashionable aesthetic significances: the sere, abstract comforts of language poetry, the rich joys of beautifully/painfully-worded autobiography, the imperial elegance of nearly every form of critique, all succulent and accredited modes. And what’s Frederick Pollack doing differently?
Almost always, he constructs narratives - sometimes people acting in real places, sometimes aliens or demigods operating in imagined vistas - and often in in-between spaces, that may be a transformed present, or an elaborated memory.
The stories he’s telling are regularly about either difficult conditions, or picture ineffective, if pleasant resolutions. And like the poets mentioned above, he’s writing – directly or metaphorically – about what’s occurring in the world, right now. In the 21st century.
To quote Mick Jagger for a moment, that’s when the whip comes down. W.H. Auden saw, in his own dark clarity, the approach of the Second World War, and Milosz lived it, and worried into the metaphysics of the human future, while Larkin watched the 20th century human animal unsparingly, and Frederick Seidel, dangerously, uses his own life as a field of metaphors for the unfolding century. All these poets are existentially-grounded, as Frederick Pollack is. So they still stand before the ice…
And what Frederick Pollock does, uniquely, is this: he brings no good news, but what he brings, in a terribly useful abundance, are vatic, metaphorical, premonitory pictures, stories, observations, about the real histories ahead (and behind), and the real conditions in our real, very conflicted world.
This writing feels as real - to overuse the word once more - as the poetry of the Roman Empire, of Ovid and Catullus, before that empire began its unexpected collapse. Frederick Pollack is watching, with a radical, aesthetic grace, what’s really happening…
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Tags : A Poverty of Words [Frederick Pollack] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A Poverty of Words, by Frederick Pollack (Prolific Press Inc. 2015), is an important and relevant publication of American Poetry by one of the finest living poets today. <div> In his rich new collection,Frederick Pollack,A Poverty of Words,Prolific Press,1632750198,American - General,Poetry,Poetry American General,Poetry by individual poets,POETRY General
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A Poverty of Words Frederick Pollack 9781632750198 Books Reviews
In this volume are many moods, wry observations, clever twists, and a lot to ponder. My favorite -- "Battle on the Ice"
I read and re-read. Words are just pregnant with meaning. Really, this is good stuff. Poet is true h in whatever speaker he chooses. I bought on kindle but believe that I want hard copy.
There are many astonishing things about this poetry collection, but two characteristics stand out for me
One is that whatever subject Fred Pollack explores-- human or inanimate-- he joins its essence so fully, we can't help but enter into it as well. (Imagine seeing the world from the point of view of sand!)
The other is the economy and unpredictability of each word, line, phrase and poem. Fred Pollack writes with the precision of a diamond cutter. Each poem is a jewel, each facet gleaming, each edge so sharp it feels like it could cut, and it often does. Get ready A Poverty of Words is as visceral an experience as it is intellectual.
"A Poverty of Words" is a romp in and out of the classical world and the present. Pollack is a poet that can bring to life a wide range of subjects fast food, William Turner paintings, and Ovid all find places in his work. He has mastered the correct balance between creative ideas and the craftsmanship of writing -- all sprinkled with the pepper of surrealism.
I am most impressed with his ability to inject delightful complication into a phrase'. Example "...contemporary ghosts at your banquet, no more connected by social media."
I read with great interest Fred Pollack's new book, A Poverty of Words. I was attracted since Pollack describes himself as beholden at least somewhat to the Beats. But he is much, much more than a modern reworking of Beat. He travels fluidly from past through present to future . . . an acute critic of where we have reached, but a suggestive oracle of where we can go. And getting there through this poet is an eye-opening, riveting, often humorous, always knowing trip! I can't recommend this book highly enough. And now I'm off to search out his earlier works!
A truly contemporary master of interpreting the human experience, Frederick's book has led me to rediscover an interest in poetry which I had lost some time ago. For me, "Heartland" displays his true talent of capturing and displaying a moment in a way that the reader can visualize and understand, and more importantly, feel. Furthermore, my two teenagers are enjoying the book as they can relate to its many present-day subjects (involving cellphones, SUVs, T.J. Maxx, etc.) and it's helped them to realize that poetry isn't restricted to obscure, archaic wonderings which they are often exposed to in school and that they tend to find to be boring mostly because they have trouble "connecting" to it, but instead, like music, poetry can exist in many different forms and touch upon any and all things that can be imagined. In fact, my youngest is currently working on an English assignment that requires writing ten poems, and this book has inspired her to view the blank college-ruled paper in front of her as an empty canvas on which she can paint the world as she sees it today. I think this experience will eventually help her to appreciate the past classics, and realize that "classics" are not of a particular time, but are actually being created today as well. "A Poverty of Words" is, for sure, an instant classic!
Frederick Pollack begins his poem “Ice” with the following lines
If you stand long enough
By the ice in the crosswalk,
Seeking without success
A way round,
Shadows will come.
There have been a very few poets, in these last 75 years or so – W.H. Auden, Philip Larkin, Czeslaw Milosz, and Frederick Seidel - to name several - who have, in light of their own dark clarities, avoided them – and continued to face the ice… And these shadows are bringing solace, a stepping past that particular, unhappy, unworkable vision…
What are these “shadows?” Well - in contemporary poetry itself now – these shadows are the illusions of fashionable aesthetic significances the sere, abstract comforts of language poetry, the rich joys of beautifully/painfully-worded autobiography, the imperial elegance of nearly every form of critique, all succulent and accredited modes. And what’s Frederick Pollack doing differently?
Almost always, he constructs narratives - sometimes people acting in real places, sometimes aliens or demigods operating in imagined vistas - and often in in-between spaces, that may be a transformed present, or an elaborated memory.
The stories he’s telling are regularly about either difficult conditions, or picture ineffective, if pleasant resolutions. And like the poets mentioned above, he’s writing – directly or metaphorically – about what’s occurring in the world, right now. In the 21st century.
To quote Mick Jagger for a moment, that’s when the whip comes down. W.H. Auden saw, in his own dark clarity, the approach of the Second World War, and Milosz lived it, and worried into the metaphysics of the human future, while Larkin watched the 20th century human animal unsparingly, and Frederick Seidel, dangerously, uses his own life as a field of metaphors for the unfolding century. All these poets are existentially-grounded, as Frederick Pollack is. So they still stand before the ice…
And what Frederick Pollock does, uniquely, is this he brings no good news, but what he brings, in a terribly useful abundance, are vatic, metaphorical, premonitory pictures, stories, observations, about the real histories ahead (and behind), and the real conditions in our real, very conflicted world.
This writing feels as real - to overuse the word once more - as the poetry of the Roman Empire, of Ovid and Catullus, before that empire began its unexpected collapse. Frederick Pollack is watching, with a radical, aesthetic grace, what’s really happening…
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