Empires

by John Balaban

"Balaban has long been one of our finest poetic craftsmen working in the lyric mode. In his latest collection, Empires , Balaban once again demonstrates why he is celebrated as a major American poet." ― War, Literature, and the Arts

"John Balaban’s Empires is an elegant addition to this distinguished poet’s body of work, and will surely be remembered as one of the indispensable poetry publications of its decade."― Literary Matters

John Balaban’s sixth collection of poetry considers America in its innate beauty and complex ugliness, in its powerfully healing landscapes and its destructive misadventures. With a compelling lyricism and cinematic imagery, Empires showcases the pervasiveness of the human spirit across a diverse cast of characters, both modern and ancient. From the rubble of the World Trade Center to Washington’s troops crossing the Potomac to powerful insights into the Vietnam War, Balaban’s genius is in connecting the dots of history. Despite the destruction and persecution associated with empires, Balaban illuminates the often overlooked transcendent hope available through poetry, music, and an unwavering connection to the land. Through heart warming elegies, gripping narratives and new translations from several Romanian poets, Balaban’s poems shine a redemptive light amidst the darkness and chaos of changing empires.

“In a way that few poets do, John Balaban truly roams the globe―and the centuries. He has his eye on empires, yes, but also on moments when different slices of history collide... His capacious poems enlarge our eyes on the world.” ―Adam Hochschild

“In these poems, John Balaban plumbs the recent and ancient past. His generous spirit and technical brilliance cast a very bright light. Empires is luminous work.” ―Elizabeth Farnsworth

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2019

About the author

John Balaban (b. 1943) is the author of twelve books of poetry and prose. He has won several awards, including the Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, a National Poetry Series Selection, and, forLocusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems, the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. He was named the 2001–2004 National Artist for the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. In 2003, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He has also been nominated twice for the National Book Award. In addition to writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, Balaban translates Vietnamese poetry; he is also a past president of the American Literary Translators Association. Balaban is a poet-in-residence and English professor in the creative writing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Reviews

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems that traces significant events in history from 9/11 to Viking traders to ancient Romans to the Vietnam War.

from After the Inauguration, 2013: "Farther south, / past Richmond, something like snow or frost glints off a field / and you realize it's just gleaned of cotton and this is indeed the South. As if to confirm this fact / to us all on Amtrak, some latter-day Confederate / has raised the rebel battle-flag in a field of winter wheat."

from Returning After Our War: 2. The Opium Pillow: "A cool ceramic block, a brick / just larger than one's cheek, // cream-colored, bordered in blue, / a finely crackled glaze, but smooth, // a hollow bolster on which to lay / one's head before it disappears // in curls of acrid opium fumes / slowly turning in the tropical room // lit by a lampwick's resinous light / snaking shadows up a wall."

[Scott Pomfret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection has global subject matter, ranging from classical antiquity to an encounter with a Border Patrol agent while seeking the Marfa light (and many places in between). The poems set in classical times felt elegiac and nostalgic and yet surprisingly robust. I was less convinced by those in more modern era. The section on Vietnam, however, was a delightful combination of old memory and busy rebirth. With this collection, Balaban has created an enduring memorial.

[Shawn Aebi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd collection - the early works on Greek warriors (Xenophanes) do nothing for me. But once he gets out of the library and into the prairie with sights and noises and smells, his work resonates loudly.

[Zuska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful poems. Liked the first section of the book the best.

UPDATE: Love this just as much three years later. I visited Washington's Crossing for the first time in the last year and so Balaban's "Christmas Eve At Washington's Crossing" had a stronger feel for me this time. Balaban knits together the past and present in this poem, the opening stanzas describing a winter that seems to be of the past but is the present. One feels the awe of the achievement Washington inspired his troops to accomplish, and then, in the last two stanzas

"Before crossing, legend says, they assembled in the snow to hear
Paine’s new essay about summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.

What words could call us together now? On what river bank?
For what common good would we abandon all?"

the reader is suddenly hit with mourning and loss, an awareness of just how rich and majestic is that history, that legacy by rights belonging to us all, that forces domestic and foreign are conspiring to fritter away today.