Shot

by Christine Hume

Poetry. In alternating currents of prose and verse, SHOT reaches beyond the tradition of the nocturne to illuminate contradictory impulses and intensities of night. SHOT inhabits the sinister, visionary, intimate, haunted, erotic capacities to see and hear things at night, in the fertile void containing our own psychological and physical darkness. Via Levinas who locates self-knowledge and ethical contract in insomnia, this darkness is one "stuck full of eyes." Here the insomniac falls into a Beckettian pattern of waiting, in an inextricable dialogue with a selfhood that cannot settle down. In a perpetual play between empirical and abstract knowledge, tantrum and meditation, SHOT creates torque that drives beyond material experience.

Genres: Poetry

87 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an unwilling proponent of this book because the first poem, Incubatory, convinced me that I hated it. But as I read (forcing myself to read, really, because I like Counterpath press so much) I began to think hating this book is part of loving it. It is annoying, it blurts things out, it gets excited with itself, it overkills -- but it also sees everything (good and bad) through. The thinking is sloppy at times, but it stomps through on pure gall getting us somewhere pretty fucking original. In fact, the book does remind me of a certain type of performance whereby an actor/speaker breaks her contract with the audience, giving her the distance she needs to really freak out and do something. I think that's what happened here. I had to be really far away from the speaker to witness the full range of motion in these poems.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Necropastoral: a book that wants to un-domesticate, or perhaps just make uncanny, the wilderness of sleeplessness.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

from Looking for a Wormhole: "My first mind is night driving on and on. My blood evolved from this pitch and one night's tar accumulated in my mouth. If I go with my face made up, occult currents get plumbed. Their magnetic air is self-taught and not handled well."

from Lively Dub Yourself: "pigeons startle out / rubble and litter chimes // zeros nesting / in their pre-love"

from Obedience of Optics: "Law speaks of / a girl who bled // from her eye / until it turned // itself in and / cannibalized sight // Girl raised one good / and one bad eye // their rivalry glimmered / glaucoma off-gassing"

[Magdalena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illustration - unraveled me.

[A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm too much of a traditionalist--I can see the art behind this book,but I still love to be able to fully connect with what I'm reading and I couldn't do that with this book, but that's the point, I believe.

[Marthe Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read -- a Baedecker of night!

[J.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

review + interview forthcoming at Monkeybicycle