Uproar: Antiphonies to Psalms

by Brooks Haxton

In this book of homemade psalms, Brooks Haxton brings the poetry of the original psalmists, their awe and their music, into our world of jet planes and space travel, automatic rifles and suburban pleasures. As he writes in his preface, “I take psalms less as doctrine than as outcries, and I cry back in these poems from whatever vantage I can find.” The result is lucid, touching verse that connects the exalted language of scripture with everyday experience. In a poem called “Dark,” for example, Haxton riffs on the gorgeous line “The night also is thine” (Psalm 74) as he stands on his front stoop on a particularly black night. “Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures” (Psalm 36) brings forth a poem about the perilous joy of bodysurfing. And his response to Psalm 58, “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance,” becomes a poem about Westmoreland in Vietnam.

These vibrant scraps of ancient text reverberate with intimations of the immediate present, and Haxton’s poetry, in response, is fresh, funny, and tender. In the pain of doubt, and even in the burlesque of irreverence, he explores the mystery of our abiding passion for the sacred.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 2004

Reviews

[Gabby Grinaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing control over language. Very removed while still being impactful and daring. Simple constructions in a traditional sense.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's premise and thematic trajectory are very appealing. And there are a handful of fine poems. But I'll admit: I was disappointed. The "poems" often read like thoughts broken into lines. Many of the entries in the "Notes" section are longer than the actual poems (a counter-productive tactic, I think) and take away—or rather place elsewhere—the energy that should be on the page within the poem. Haxton is no doubt astute—he teaches at Syracuse and Warren Wilson and does a good bit of translation work as well. Yet, this collection—as with his more recent one—leaves me feeling I’ve missed out on the poetry in reading a series of journal entries.

[Randy Cauthen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes he seems overly laconic to me, but all told this is imaginative and in many places moving. Some of them begin to feel a bit like Hardy's poems that struggle with Jahweh.