Lark Apprentice

by Louise Mathias

Poetry. A Brenda Hillman Selection. "Here, the sum of the parts generates'such a brutal equation' that there is little difference between 'the longerlife' and 'the lush line.' Mathias recognizes the 'lush line' was everimplemented not for the sake of beauty, but to counter the fact that mortalinquiry is always fraught with the danger of temporal collapse"--Richard Greenfield.

Genres: Poetry

66 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

About the author

Louise Mathias was born in 1975 in Bedford, England, and grew up in a small village in Suffolk, England, and later, Los Angeles. Her first book, Lark Apprentice, won the 2003 New Issues Poetry Prize and was published in 2004 by New Issues Press. A chapbook, Above All Else, the Trembling Resembles a Forest, was selected by Martha Ronk for the Burnside Review Chapbook contest, was published in 2010. Poems have appeared in journals such as Denver Quarterly, Triquarterly, Massachusetts Review, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, Hunger Mountain, Epoch, Octopus, The Journal, Green Mountains Review, Slope, Verse Daily, and many others. Her second book, The Traps, is forthcoming from Four Way Books.

Reviews

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mathias’s book Lark Apprentice is a navigation between gods and bodies, between trespass and impasse. It is language and syntax as frisson, as incandescence: a series of lyrical matrices that flutter like sundresses, more sensual than sexual, more haptical than optical. Mathias repeatedly employs the word “lush,” precisely describing her own poems with their nod towards Herrick and his liquefactions. Yet, among light’s liquidity and the lark’s song, one “is supposed to call to mind / the murderous trees, / rootless and brooding for roots”. There is a sense that the speaker(s) of the poems is well aware of Cavafy’s terror at “how quickly that dark line gets longer, / how quickly the snuffed-out candles proliferate.” And yet, reading Mathias’s book is to touch that electric hand in the darkness, reminding one what bittersweet eros is embedded in being alive.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I've read it several times now and I still haven't tired of it. The language is intense and rare. I enjoy seeing writers who are willing to dance on the edge of something uncertain.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great mixture of form and content, intellect and emotion, image and abstraction. These poems bear reading and re-reading. The language is surprising and tight, but loose and mysterious in all the right places. Negative capability at its best.

It also holds together as a book. This isn't just a volume of poems; it is a progressive story--which I want from more books of poetry. It needs to be read from front to back--things will be lost if you skip around or start in the middle.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis Mathias kicks butt. These poems are gnomic, smart, condensed, elliptical, thrilling, strange, emotional, always interesting. For those who like their poetry with both 1) content and 2) formal interest.

[Megan Kaminski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louise Mathias' Lark Apprentice came out a few years ago, but I just discovered it this past December. Mathias' writing throughout is absolutely gorgeous--the language is haunting and lush, and it's not just language. The poems work through accumulation, building a world of their own. There is not a word wasted in these pages--tightly constructed, beautiful lyric poems. Looking forward to her next book.

[Randy Cauthen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really strong musically and empathically; sometimes difficult, but always muscular and emotionally vibrant. It _feels_ true.

[Sebastien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the construction and form of the poems. Sparse, beautiful, fascinating, intriguing, mysterious! going to have to go back and read this volume again and again.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a sort of associative fog billowing through Mathias's book. Whenever it clears for a few pages, the poems are brilliant and sharp and strange.