Miniatures and Other Poems

by Barbara Guest

Barbara Guest began writing in the 1950s, a member of the New York School of Poets. She embraces the experiments of Modernism and uses the abstract qualities in words against their sensuousness. Miniatures and Other Poems is a collection of compressed and allusive poems, organized in three Miniatures, Pathos and Blurred Edge. Each "miniature" reduces a poem to its most intimate meaning, but this is not to suggest that the significance of the poem is small. Just as little pieces of music blossom into large chords, so these small poems blossom with large intimations.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2002

About the author

Barbara Guest, née Barbara Ann Pinson (September 6, 1920 – February 15, 2006), was an American poet and prose stylist. Guest first gained recognition as a member of the first generation New York School of poetry.[1] Guest wrote more than 15 books of poetry spanning sixty years of writing. In 1999, she was awarded the Frost Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Poetry Society of America. Guest also wrote art criticism, essays, and plays. Her collages appeared on the covers of several of her books of poetry. She was also well known for her biography of the poet H.D., Herself Defined: The Poet H.D. and Her World (1984).

Reviews

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I, too, am an ardent defender of Miniature Pieces."
- Anton Chekhov (from Letters)

In Miniatures and Other Poems, Barbara Guest evokes comparison to her most prominent influences, the poet Hilda Doolittle. Guest's admiration of Doolittle is well known, Guest having authored the "definitive biography" of Doolittle. Guest evokes Doolittle with her use of old English, her allusions to ancient texts/mythologies, and her celebration of art...

[...]
 "Be not lachrymose,

 tear-streaked.

 You are out of reach

 of fakirs

On your boot

 the King of Naples inscribed

 footprints of The Aeneid."


On the manuscript are Dido's tears, from Dido.
 - Shabby Boot (pg. 3)


 THERE CAME A CLOUD IT SETTLED ON YOUR
SHOULDER.
 The cloud seeks high culture, after Ovid.

 To soar through domes, bird of Art,
 Halfway to icy heaven.

 Halfway to heaven search in high space, in deep
 crevasse.

 Knighthood.

 Poesie be engendered after OVID.
 - Bird of Art (pg. 4)


LO! It shakes boughs Spirit Tree.

Plenty of wonder here and miraculum.

Pleaseth shade with lark!

Immortalis makes entry.
Small feet carry chalice, Domine.

 Swete be sound and soothing.

Lady and gazelle, amitié. 
 - Spirit Tree (pg. 5)

The collections contains both poems and prose poems, reminiscent of the prose poems in Guest's The Confetti Tree ...

The black curtain had fallen over the moon, yet stars are out tonight. Dust falls through the curtain. We are asleep. Night descends into another part of the house, coal shifts in the bin.
My grandfather shuffled the coal veins that come from the deep shoulder. My eyes are closed, flecks of coal fall onto my cheek. He brushes them away. He brushes my shoes with a little shoe brush. Soon his eyes are closed. His eyes shine red in his kingdom. I view the coal God through dust, darkest dust.
- Coal (from Miniatures and Other Poems, pg. 23)

A need to film Nostalgia crept into the studio and Fade In
Les Grand Boulevards, umbrellas and personal sky, ambition and secret desire, "stiletto" of rain. Dissolve to nostalgia shots ambition and secret desire pleasers of visual kings: knees, masks, intolerance, greed, ballrooms, Bucharest, Vienna, slums; barges, wars, candles, airplanes, deserts, California, New York, railroads; gangsters, light bulbs, aprons, swords, horses; the Riviera, Russians, madmen, births, Christ, weddings; Fade Out dissolve into an earnest documentation; Fade into "Overview: "Now"
- Nostalgia (from The Confetti Tree)

The title of this collection, Miniatures and Other Poems, is derived from a quote from one of Chekhov, letters (above). Incidentally, Chekhov himself is evoked in a poem entitled "Chekhoviana"...

En pointe in the plié, she greets monster sailing ship. Shy is overcast this day. Bell of last regime trembles in an overcoat. Worms wear old rings. "Here is where they were!" she says. "A bag of apricots hidden in the chair . . ." He listens to her sing "Bitter Avenue." Her boots are covered with caravan dust, broken seams.

Roofs fall in, no grapes grow in the harbour.

They only have their skin and old satin shoes. "It's the luck of the road," she moans, and puts her hand on his cheek. "Look at our russet wind."
- Chekhoviana (pg. 22)

Perhaps this point about Chekhov because I recently read Denise Levertov's Life in the Forest, in which Chekhov is notably referenced. Furthermore, Guest's apricot evokes comparison to Levertov's nectarine in my favourite poem from Life in the Forest...

Nectarine of our pleasure,
enclosed in its own fragrance,
poised on its imaginary branch!
- Denise Levertov, "Modulations, iii" (from Life in the Forest)

[willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drifty, dreamy, mythological sounds and images.