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Underground Facility
In Underground Facility , as in C. E. J. Simons’s first Isobar collection, imagined afterlives of Shakespearean characters bridge past and Oberon and Puck turn investment bankers, Gonzalo is deaf to the plight of Mediterranean refugees, while Sycorax might be an embodiment of the laws of thermodynamics. However, the earlier book’s refusal to anthropomorphize nature now gives way to symbolic representations of human life and history through animal portraits – a glass frog as a devoted father, hermit crabs as sex addicts, a grasshopper as an interplanetary missionary. Moreover, in place of celebrating poetic self-effacement, Underground Facility grapples with poems about grandfathers, fathers, mothers and sisters engage with how we build ourselves out of inherited fragments, rituals, superstitions, and conflicts.
142 pages, Paperback
Published July 14, 2018
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November 9, 2021
I’m the author of this book, so I hope I can give an accurate, if biased, review. Thank you for considering buying this book—I hope you do, and I hope you read something in it that stays with you. If you’d like to read a few of the poems before buying, you can find a short excerpt on the publisher’s website (Isobar Press).
This is my fourth book of poems, and my second full collection with Isobar Press. I write primarily formalist verse, using a variety of traditional and modern forms drawn from English, Japanese, and other languages. My thematic focus includes human life, the natural world, and their interactions. I also tend to write a lot about Shakespeare; this book, like my previous collection One More Civil Gesture, includes a number of 'Shakespearean afterlives' or alternate existences for well-known characters from Shakespeare plays.
This book also contains a long poem, 'A Dozen on the Half Shell'. It may be a poem about oysters, overtly, but it's as much about oysters as Lewis Carroll's 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'.
Here's more information from the publisher's website:
'In Underground Facility, as in C. E. J. Simons’s first Isobar collection, imagined afterlives of Shakespearean characters bridge past and present: Oberon and Puck turn investment bankers, Gonzalo is deaf to the plight of Mediterranean refugees, while Sycorax might be an embodiment of the laws of thermodynamics. However, the earlier book’s refusal to anthropomorphize nature now gives way to symbolic representations of human life and history through animal portraits – a glass frog as a devoted father, hermit crabs as sex addicts, a grasshopper as an interplanetary missionary. Moreover, in place of celebrating poetic self-effacement, Underground Facility grapples with autobiography: poems about grandfathers, fathers, mothers and sisters engage with how we build ourselves out of inherited fragments, rituals, superstitions, and conflicts.'
If you're interested in a review copy, please let me know. I'll also be giving away a few copies of these and my most recent book in promotions.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this book of poems!
This is my fourth book of poems, and my second full collection with Isobar Press. I write primarily formalist verse, using a variety of traditional and modern forms drawn from English, Japanese, and other languages. My thematic focus includes human life, the natural world, and their interactions. I also tend to write a lot about Shakespeare; this book, like my previous collection One More Civil Gesture, includes a number of 'Shakespearean afterlives' or alternate existences for well-known characters from Shakespeare plays.
This book also contains a long poem, 'A Dozen on the Half Shell'. It may be a poem about oysters, overtly, but it's as much about oysters as Lewis Carroll's 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'.
Here's more information from the publisher's website:
'In Underground Facility, as in C. E. J. Simons’s first Isobar collection, imagined afterlives of Shakespearean characters bridge past and present: Oberon and Puck turn investment bankers, Gonzalo is deaf to the plight of Mediterranean refugees, while Sycorax might be an embodiment of the laws of thermodynamics. However, the earlier book’s refusal to anthropomorphize nature now gives way to symbolic representations of human life and history through animal portraits – a glass frog as a devoted father, hermit crabs as sex addicts, a grasshopper as an interplanetary missionary. Moreover, in place of celebrating poetic self-effacement, Underground Facility grapples with autobiography: poems about grandfathers, fathers, mothers and sisters engage with how we build ourselves out of inherited fragments, rituals, superstitions, and conflicts.'
If you're interested in a review copy, please let me know. I'll also be giving away a few copies of these and my most recent book in promotions.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this book of poems!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review