Chimes

by Adam Fieled

In charged, synesthetic bursts, Adam Fieled charts the formation of a poetic consciousness. This collection of prose poems spins out the epistemological memoir of a seer. Transporting us from an early sketch of thought's babyhood to a boyish hand tracing a girl's knee, Fieled's slices of insight fuse music, flavor, memory and word in an effortless union. Ephemeral and sublime, Chimes lures us in for a bite, until, with the poet, we remember to "experience moments as a kind of I was hungry and I did." Amy King At times so painful and lovely and fragile that Chimes made my mind's eyes weep. My body's eyes, however, refused to cry as they did not want to stop reading--Chimes paradoxically is a page-turner even as the words compel you to linger on each page. Chimes is one of the most moving autobiographies I've read--actually, language's beauty makes it irrelevant whether this is fiction or non-fiction; its authenticity is felt to be true. It is language dreaming of song and so it sings until the most tone-deaf reader can, through dream and a most gentle delirium, inhabit its world. For the reader, too, Chimes thus is "not an is but [a] being." Adam Fieled accomplishes what The Catcher in the Rye did for him and that he wished to that by "words demonstrat[ing]...potential for continuity," he "give[s] people back themselves." Quite logically, the book's ending is a the being as forever a continuance. That is, "continuance...an excitement and a way of still existing." Eileen Tabios Chimes is autobiography in point form—high points, low points. How we change as we grow up & what makes us do so. Change in musical tastes—Beatles superceded by the Stones, one of the true transitional points of youth—how relationships change, how Father is found to be a Friend & then is lost as another transition occurs. The discovery of the opposite sex, the end of youth, & yet another beginning to it. How growing up is personal but full of universal discoveries. In his recent books, Adam Fieled has shown himself to be a master of the focused series of poems. In Chimes, a beautiful sequence of shortish prose poems, he is at his most masterful. Mark Young

Genres: Poetry

65 pages, print

First published February 9, 2009

About the author

Adam Fieled is a poet based in Philadelphia. He has released three print books: "Opera Bufa" (Otoliths, 2007), "When You Bit..." (Otoliths, 2008), and "Chimes" (Blazevox, 2009), as well as numerous chaps, e-chaps, and e-books, including "Posit" (Dusie Press, 2007), "Beams" (Blazevox, 2007), and "The White Album" (ungovernable press, 2009). He has work in journals like Tears in the Fence, Great Works, The Argotist, Upstairs at Duroc, Jacket, on PennSound, and in the &Now Anthology from Lake Forest College Press, and an essay forthcoming in Poetry Salzburg Review from University of Salzburg Press. A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he also holds an MFA from New England College and an MA from Temple University, where he is completing his PhD.

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

'mishaps could be gateways to other realities'

Adam Fieled is a poet who has discovered (or has evolved from) those fragile filaments that connect the cells of thought in their most nascent stage: he makes us aware of the intangible moments in the development of our memory and history that make us unique. Where this gift begins is offered in evidence in this magical collection of poems, CHIMES.

Able to retrace early thoughts from childhood in the voice of the memory catcher of that age is only one of the little miracles of these very personal poems. Perhaps autobiographical, perhaps not, the poems contain moments of awakening that are fresh and novel and yet connect with the reader in a way that makes them part of the reader's musings on pasts that hold moments of change or connection to the world of 'otherness'. From childhood through the journey to adulthood each of these poems - free form in style and placed at the top of separate pages to allow each thought to digest - describes moments in a manner that is deceptively simple. Re-reading or just recalling each poem unveils more, much like the music of wind chimes once moved by the air leaves vibrations in the atmosphere. In #20, 'Things shifted. I went from cool to killed-by-lack-thereof. In a period of isolation, I learned about reversals, about temporality and its ruthless one-handedness....I learned thusly how one must wait to be blessed, that patience is a virtue close to heaven, that all things are eventually answered by their opposites, if the soul is maintained closely. I learned that seasons have each a particular flavor and shape, like candy and snowflakes, and that each season must have a slightly different meaning.'

Adam Fieled takes us through discoveries, through music, through infatuation and tactile sensation to relationships, through moments of humor and of profound introspection. He is a difficult poet to quote for single lines of example, so tightly bound are his 59 poems shared here. On the cover of this very special book are simple handprints - green, blue, rust - from different hands, different lives, different beings. The manner in which Fieled writes somehow ties us all together, if just for a moment, as though he is able to see his and our thinking painted in words. This is a gifted poet whose talent in discovering our consciousness has only just begun. Highly recommended. Grady Harp

[Paul Siegell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, this is why:

#4

Father, my father, was there and he was fixing my window with special nails and I didn't like them and he said they don't like you either. First my father was there in the house and he was picking up a spilled scrambled egg with his foot and saying handy foot or then he was at a picnic table in the yard with lots of big people on a sunny day and much smiling but that was soon over. Much was soon over and I knew what over meant in a young way and I sang into a tape recorder with over happening in the background. There was still hearing after over was over and after everything was over I went back to a room inside myself meant for continuation and continuing continued, and had not to ever end or be over.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite is #10. Very addictive. Total cliffhanger ending. When is the sequel?

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

there was a nice moment or two in it I guess, but I've never read a man who whines so much about his father. did Sylvia Plath come back into style?

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Precious, whiny, self-indulgent, arch --the kind of book that flatters one for caring.

Is it any wonder this shameless narcissist gave his own book five stars?