Musicality

by Barbara Guest, June Felter

Poetry. " In this inspired collaboration all id fugitive, perishable, mortal - drawing one into the mind of pure longing as natural and imagined landscapes extend each other's tenuous fictions"-Kathleen Fraser.

Genres: Poetry

40 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1987

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]

The wave of building murmur
 fetid slough from outside
a brown mouse a tree mouse.


 two trees leaning forward
the thick new-made emptiness




 Naturalism.




 Hanging apples half notes
in the rhythmic ceiling red flagged 
rag clefs


 notational margins

 the unfinished

 cloudburst


a barrel cloud fallen from the cyclone truck
they hid under a table the cloud


 with menacing disc




 Leafs ripple in the dry cyclonic



 levelled crusts - 



 for four hands of chambered
 breeze & cloud design



her imposing composition of cloud weight


upon the sketched-in roof small jumps over
the roofs




 a sonatina
edges in like sand grains under the orchard trees



 pitching marbled stripes
of dusk like casino awnings near a vast pool
or contrasting mountain elevation



 light retires in graduations
 flick and flutter


 "a favourite view"


 Gieseking's troll marks
follow gauze undeterred by erroneous
dew the piano reminds us


the wayside is littered altering
"try" into fog cast


 the suite of "remembering"



 in forest guise the "theme"
shy of Nibelung thunder requests the artist
who is shy driving here motor
watching big mountain thunder fall on shy trees

 the composition is shy


the example of cyclonic creativity equally devastates.


to sketch "A Favourite View" ethnically positions
 two strangers who join hands in a movie
 without sound


one leaps on the other's lap
 a cloud


or Purcell muslin intimidating in
anxious-less moments when thoughts provoke


drained hands
 lightning held to a border of trees


patient exercise of drawing a visible number
chromatically the structure unfolds
 a formal delicacy



when she hitches up her notebook and sits under
the Steinway the blue trees vanish.
 "the Willies"


 cobbled breeze
 a pearl snatched from its shell

 in that moment

 as the sky slowly

 Musicalities



 orchards in most of their
depth the stubbed mountain
a chain of miniature birds



you understand the euphemisms of nature
how the figure appears in still life



and you understand the creation of orchards



your hesitation is not forgetfulness
something else hides the view



 Evanescence

the bather in the pool

[Konstantin R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

[rating = B+]
Though this is a very short work, one poem in all, it is a very interesting one. With sketches that are minimalist which go readily with each few lines on the page, this work is abstract in a non-confusing way. The lines all work together and build to an end that is clearly seen. It is about time and nature, done in a creative and thoughtful way.