Elemenopy

by Michael Coffey

Poet Michael Coffey created Elemenopy as a book, rather than as a collection of poems, in order to represent a procession of struggles and outcomes in his and the poems' relationship to language. The first section, "Loving," contains playful poems that delight in the promise of poetic form and lyric utterance. "Lichen," the second section, is made up of two longer prose poems, each a kind of ill-fated narrative event. In the third section, "Otherwards," Coffey appropriates the words and techniques of other authors - namely Gertrude Stein and the poet Jackson Mac Low - to break through to fresher possibilities for narrative. "Javajazyk," the concluding section, invents a language in which to tell the love story of Vasteny and Ombaly.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Michael Coffey received his B.A. in English at the University of Notre Dame and an M.A. from Leeds University in Anglo-Irish Literature. Former co-editorial director at Publishers Weekly, he has published three books of poems, a collection of short stories, a book about baseball’s perfect games, and co-edited a book about Irish immigration to America.