Sonnets

by Camille Martin

Poetry. In her second book of poetry, Camille Martin breathes fresh life into the sonnet in a collection that is at once edgy and lyrical. The word "sonnet" comes from "song," and the musicality of SONNETS is not surprising, given Martin's background as a classical musician. These poems demonstrate a virtuosic range of approaches and themes; some are inspired by texts as disparate as nursery rhymes, theories of cognitive science, a history of street names, and her own dream journals. The chorus of voices in this collection sing confidently and fluently, proving the sonnet to be an ideal vehicle for Martin's love affair with language.

Genres: Poetry

108 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2010

About the author

Praise for Sonnets:

In these taut, fast-paced, self-aware poems, the lyric meets 21st century paranoia and sparks fly.
—Rae Armantrout

There is magnificence in these poems, a poetic magnetic, propelling you to turn the page.
—Jordan Scott

Camille Martin’s poems shimmer with repetition deft as sweetest breath mid-spring.
—Sheila E. Murphy

There’s none of the lyrical self-absorption one finds in too many collections. . . Martin has a very good ear, as in a fun, almost Hopkinsesque piece that flirts with nonsense, but stays syntactically coherent.
—Quill and Quire

There are so few who seem to know how to bring something new to an often-used form that when it happens, it’s worth noting, and such is the case with Camille Martin in Sonnets. Martin writes with the most wonderful sense of clarity, thought and play in these poems.
—rob mclennan

Sonnets is a delightful body of work. Even though we wander into the oblique there is never alienation. Incredible poetic craft.
—James Mc Laughlin, Stride Magazine

Can you pour new wine into old bottles? Well, if you are Camille Martin and the bottles are sonnets, the answer is an emphatic “Yes.”
—Carol Dorf, New Pages Book Reviews

Camille Martin is the author of Sonnets (Shearsman), Codes of Public Sleep (BookThug), and Sesame Kiosk (Potes & Poets). Recent poetry projects: “Looms,” a collection of layered narratives, and “The Evangeline Papers,” a poetic sequence based on her Acadian/Cajun heritage and her participation in archaeological digs at an eighteenth-century village in Nova Scotia (finds: ancestral pipes and wine bottles).

blog:
http://rogueembryo.wordpress.com

Reviews

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language spills and flows. Words tumble from one sentence to the next. Their power resides in breakwaters, ruptures of sound and feeling. The sonnets are movingly beautiful to me, intricate dreams within the real and realities of a body dealing with interruption and uncertainty.

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

you already know how i came home.
i saw a yellow wooden house.
i'm always blundering into difficulties.
the case drags on and on.
and this mood comes over me more and more often.
i finally grow contemptuous of myself.
i must change the ribbon on my hat.
then what would i do with my boots?
i'm afraid something will happen if i go on like this.
it's a tangled affair.
yes, anything may happen.
but the last moments are the worst.
there can be no further discussion of it.
let us finish these ripe plums.

- poor souls 1, pg. 12

* * *

this is the rune that paper sang.
these are the words that graced the tune
that paper sang. this is the loom
that wove the words that graced the tune
that paper sang. this is the flame
that burned the loom that wove the words
that graced the tune that paper sang.
this is the fly that fanned the flame
that burned the loom that wove the words
that graced the tune that paper sang.
this is the window that let out the fly
that fanned the flame that burned the loom
that wove the words that graced the tune
that paper sang.

- glasshouse chimes, 1, pg. 30

* * *

mammals and crickets breathe tomorrow's
weather, matter-of-factly they sip their tea and absorb
its little catastrophes with the calmness of a cloudy
dawn observed through a clear window, slowly, glass panes
weep for blooms and scorched blooms, oaths broken
and kept, waves vanish into glitter while empty cups
loom. tomorrow, that is. better yet, whatever angle lurks
curves dash. on an afternoon just like this one,
is the title of a book, a real page-turner ending
with a cliff-hanger: a tightrope walker takes a deep breath
and bravely steps onto his fleeting wire. he can still feel
the breeze, and for him, too, tomorrow's weather never
dies. do he vows to balance, stick, perpendicular
to the wire, and matter-of-factly turns the page.

- catastrophe theory, 1, pg. 46

* * *

thought defeats its own grasp
and is in turn routed by its fake
signature. it is a trembling blot
infected with significance,
a gluttonous burlesque of absence
within its hermitage. its tongue
as-lib counterfeit text
and calls the indefinite home.
it observes the arc of its decay
and blurs its careful schemes
with plodding squalls, countermands
the awful simplicities entering the eyes.
its here is not here.
it has resolutely gone into an other.

- noathon, pg. 60

* * *

crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown
crown crown crown crown crown crown crown crown

- reft link, pg. 64

[Camille Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In these taut, fast-paced, self-aware poems, the lyric meets 21st century paranoia and sparks fly.
—Rae Armantrout

There is magnificence in these poems, a poetic magnetic, propelling you to turn the page.
—Jordan Scott

Camille Martin’s poems shimmer with repetition deft as sweetest breath mid-spring.
—Sheila E. Murphy

Some reviews:

http://galatearesurrection16.blogspot...

http://newpages.com/bookreviews/2010-...

http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2010/...

http://www.stridemagazine.co.uk/Strid...