Earliest Worlds: Two Books by Eleni Sikelianos

by Eleni Sikelianos

The velocity of language, the ferocity of poetry unearth our most thinking, feeling, erotic selves in this powerful debut.

This impressive debut of a major new voice in poetry begins with Blue Guide, a poem cycle of meditations on light and dark, probing theopposing/complementary nature of these universal principles and their manifestation through words. "In Of Sun, Of History, Of Seeing," the oracular power of language fuels the journey between constellations shimmering above and the mind shimmering in response below, between phenomenology and phenomena. Sikelianos says, “I am interested in the absolute ferocity of poetry, in our wild, eccentric human selves and animal and mineral planet, untainted by but interacting with socializing forces.”

Genres: Poetry

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Eleni Sikelianos is the author of six books of poetry, most recently The Loving Detail of the Living and the Dead, as well as a hybrid memoir, The Book of Jon. Sikelianos directs the creative writing program at the University of Denver.

Reviews

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sikeliano's first two books are presented here and her gifts are clear. The first book, "Blue Guide," is a meditation on the elemental nature of light and darkness run through with Sikeliano's gift for breaking syntax and creating tension with white space. This makes for an intense reading experience. Often breaking the rhythm of her spatially elliptical poems with prose poetry, the Blue Guide is a powerful debut effort. "OF Sun, Of History, Of Seeing" is diverse in its concern interested in the ways wild is in dialogue with human perception and history. She is a highly gifted poet and this is an excellent introduction to her early work.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is mysterious to me. I think she is much, much smarter than I. There are poems about quarks, prose poems, essay poems, and a whole ton more. I cannot quite fathom the leaps she makes, but I like them. Her poems contain these huge spaces that might take the entire universe into account. And then it's kind of about the universe, and/or physics and it's hard to get my brain around. I think that's the point.

[Špela · Rating 1 out of 5]

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[James Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful & brilliant early works by one of contemporary poetry's brightest lights. The pressure which she puts on the syntax, especially in the first book, Blue Guide, is tremendous, and reminds me, in some way of Robert Kelly's work, especially the idea of the t'awil of the first line or how the poem is an exegesis of its own first line. Sikelianos is a deft and highly original poet though and she seems to further the art of poetry with each successive book.