Pollen Memory

by Laynie Browne

Poetry. "These poems in prose are instructions for (not interpretations of) dreams and, as such of intrinsic value. They take fully into account 'what is lost,' 'what cannot be told,' 'the missing object,' the 'no one to blame.' They ring true."—Keith Waldrop

"With a knowledge of what has come before, Laynie Brown charts the processes of natural phenomenon by means of a lyric tuned to the harmony of the spheres. POLLEN MEMORY marks the journey of a poet who listens to important things that most of us take for granted—it is both hypnotic and wise."—Lisa Jarnot

Genres: Poetry

70 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Brian]

This is a fascinating collection of poems (Laynie Browne's first book-length) with an unusual structure. Browne describes it as: "I wished to locate a form which would approach, and continue itself. It looked something like a square, but behaved like a spinning wheel... I worked in part from notebooks. Lines were pulled from pages, poems coaxed from lines--until a procession emerged." There will appear a single phrase/line in the middle of a page, e.g., "Memory is the vessel a shell becomes"; followed by an extended "spinning wheel procession", e.g., "The darkness was not at all transparent, so that turning to look behind me even the small path dissolved except for what appeared to be a punctuated flashing of solitary eyes. Peripheral vision test. Not meeting a single step or light in passing. This small patch of night is an accomplice, a relative to the larger galaxies. How easily we forget our history, with such certainty. Into the past as a mirror, into the self as a meteor." Browne magically and lyrically pulls new possibilities from the words.

[C.A.]

from the book:

"Leaving the body in part thinking which vegetable
weather may visit. While dark is accepted as a pause, a
necessary lapse, a denser realm where pulling assumes
antagonistic reverie. Fossils continue to move. Trust
this shade tomb. If this is possible you may also
remember the rain."

AND THIS IS JUST A SMALL TASTE OF THIS REMARKABLE BOOK! The cover art by Toni Simon is really great, so I wish that was also available here for you to see.

CAConrad
http://CAConrad.blogspot.com

[Leon Brown]

At its best like soft free jazz. Lovely when L. Browne let’s go and you hear the solo transporting.