Landscapes I & II

by Lesle Lewis

In confident prose poems, “Abstraction puts on her cowboy boots” and strides into the unknown. Employing collage reminiscent of Gertrude Stein’s breathless dazzle, Lewis creates landscapes where surreal meets New England bucolic, meaning is arrived at cumulatively, and the animated and the “real” converse.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

Lesle Lewis' collections include Small Boat (winner of the 2002 Iowa Poetry Prize), Landscapes I & II (Alice James Books, 2006), lie down too (Alice James Books, 2011), and A Boot's a Boot (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2014). Her chapbook, It's Rothko in Winter or Belgium was published by Factory Hollow Press in 2012. She has had poems appear in American Letters and Commentary, Northern New England Review, Hotel Amerika, Mississippi Review, The Cincinnati Review, Green Mountains Review, Barrow Street Mudfish, LIT, Pool, jubilat, notnostrums, and Sentence. She lives in New Hampshire and is a Professor of Creative Writing at Landmark College.

Reviews

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many lines I'd like to pluck from the page and hang on my wall. Yet another wondrous collection from Lewis. Every sentence is a new world. Every paragraph is infinity.

Not by Name: https://twitter.com/neonpajamas/statu...

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book utterly stunned me. I was surprised by it. Since I don't usually enjoy prose poetry, I didn't expect to like this book so much. But, once I opened it I couldn't put it down.

[H]

"You were only that little bride, perfect novella length" (9)

"I am also a very busy cartoon./ My head spirals, stars, moons, and birds" (9)

"It's a long trip. And deep, the water is sky" (19)

"You want explanations beautiful, but not the truth which calls for more compassion than you can muster" (21)

"Under a cloud over New Haven, our train is unmoving./ We were born once; we walked through forests; we tried to save ourselves and our belongings; our fathers died and went away in boats./ We are drifters, I tried to tell you, handsome" (28)

"Let it be ragged, your life hung out on a line. You have to invent some pretty big rules not to break them. I'll direct myself to you. Why can't I let you love anyone you'd like? I can't be two people and only two" (29)

"You are not my love, but love. After love, the grasses sway like almost loving. We shouldn't call it loving" (33)

"To be sincere as water, I need more time alone than I've planned for the radio from Rob's van parked at Jay's barn reminds me. I have to take care of little spring." (65)

"The dandelion thinks he's God and I think he loves me, but love needs no object. Our eyes are somewhat further out in the plain" (67)