Integrity & Dramatic Life

by Anselm Berrigan

Poetry. In his first book-length volume of poetry, Anselm Berrigan asks Why wouldn't I mind/Brushing off another engagement/To go wander around/The shallows of downtown (from Ghost town). Though he may characterize these wide-wandering poems as flitting in the shallows, it is the accumulation of these shallows, of various downtowns and what is thought and seen in them, that makes a depth of INTEGRITY & DRAMATIC LIFE. I don't know what I say/& this has been pointed out to me (from Not all there) but in the process of reporting what many others say, and what he himself might say, provisionally, understatedly, dramatically, with integrity and irony and feeling and cities, friends, employers, nuclear war, drinks, chocloate donuts in vellum-all the detritus and necessity of an astute, young, urban, urbane, poetically driven life-Berrigan gives us a consummately delightful invitation. Someone is at the door. Shall I ask them in? (from A short history of autumn). We are someone. We have been asked

63 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Anselm Berrigan is the author of four books of poetry, including Free Cell, Some Notes on My Programming, Zero Star Hotel, and Notes from Irrelevance, and is the co-editor with Alice Notley and Edmund Berrigan of Selected Poems of Ted Berrigan. He is the poetry editor for The Brooklyn Rail, and formerly served as Artistic Director of The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. He lives and works in his hometown of New York City.

Reviews

[Joe Drogos · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few cool lines, twists of phrase, and sparking images amid the unclutterable....