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Perennial Fall
At the heart of this unusually accomplished and affecting first book of poetry is the idea of the hinge—the point of connection, of openings and closings. Maggie Dietz situates herself in the liminal present, bringing together past and future, dream and waking, death and life. Formally exact, rigorous, and tough, these poems accept no easy answers or equations.
Dietz creates a world alive with detail and populated with the everyday and amusement-park horses named Virgil and Sisyphus, squirrels hanging over tree branches “like fish.” By turns humorous and pained, direct and mysterious, elegiac and elegant, the poems trace for us the journey and persistence of the spirit toward and through its “perennial fall”—both the season and the human condition. Cumulatively, the work moves toward a fragile transcendence, surrendering to difficulty, splendor, and strangeness.
“In Perennial Fall , distinct, hard-edged images create a haunting counter-play of distortion, troubled insight or menace. The simultaneous clarity and shadow has the quality of a dream that can be neither forgotten nor settled. This is a spectacular debut and more than that—a wonderful book.”—Robert Pinsky
Dietz creates a world alive with detail and populated with the everyday and amusement-park horses named Virgil and Sisyphus, squirrels hanging over tree branches “like fish.” By turns humorous and pained, direct and mysterious, elegiac and elegant, the poems trace for us the journey and persistence of the spirit toward and through its “perennial fall”—both the season and the human condition. Cumulatively, the work moves toward a fragile transcendence, surrendering to difficulty, splendor, and strangeness.
“In Perennial Fall , distinct, hard-edged images create a haunting counter-play of distortion, troubled insight or menace. The simultaneous clarity and shadow has the quality of a dream that can be neither forgotten nor settled. This is a spectacular debut and more than that—a wonderful book.”—Robert Pinsky
- GenresPoetry
61 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 21, 2008
Maggie Dietz is a Boston-based contemporary poet who coordinates Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project and teaches at Boston University. This collection of poetry for me is a new favorite - a book I will guard and cherish. Maggie is a rock star.
October 26, 2008
I wasn't very impressed. It was nice enough, but didn't really stick out to me. There was some predictable imagery such as "apples froze in clusters on/the branches, glass apples on glass trees./Any false move would end them." or "here is the porcelain tub: expectant, cool,/its ledges lined with lavender and lemon,/labeled jars of mud and salt and oil,/milled soaps that smell of rose or melon".
The lines that did catch my attention were: "But something strange/is going on: The trees are tired/of meaning, sick of providing/mystery, parallels, consolation./"leave us alone", they seem to cry,/with barely energy for a pun." (North of Boston)
"Among the welcome elements not one/thing did not hunger to be changed./The heat held still between us." (Altos 2)
The lines that did catch my attention were: "But something strange/is going on: The trees are tired/of meaning, sick of providing/mystery, parallels, consolation./"leave us alone", they seem to cry,/with barely energy for a pun." (North of Boston)
"Among the welcome elements not one/thing did not hunger to be changed./The heat held still between us." (Altos 2)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews