Light's Ladder

by Christopher Howell

In this extraordinary new collection by distinguished poet Christopher Howell, the opening poem presents us with a spiritual paradox that will echo throughout its pages. The speaker remembers an earlier time of happiness, freedom, and a certain innocence. The poem closes

        And if he remembers now
        he is in love, which is the soul’s condition, and alone
        because that is how we live.

"How we live" is the book's major inquiry; its illustration, the poems' major achievement. How do we live, in our dailiness, in our loves, our private and global wars? And, in the face of unbearable grief, how can we live?

Keats

When Keats, at last beyond the curtain
of love’s distraction, lay dying in his room
on the Piazza di Spagna, the melody of the Bernini
Fountain “filling him like flowers,”
he held his breath like a coin, looked out
into the moonlight and thought he saw snow.
He did not suppose it was fever or the body’s
weakness turning the mind. He thought, “England!”
and there he was, secretly, for the rest
of his improvidently short up to his neck
in sleigh bells and the impossibly English cries
of street venders, perfect
and affectionate as his soul.
For days the snow and statuary sang him so far
beyond regret that if now you walk rancorless
and alone there, in the piazza, the white shadow
of his last words to Severn, “Don’t be frightened,”
may enter you.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Christopher Howell is the author of seven previous books of poetry, most recently Just Waking. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the Helen Bullis Prize, the Washington State Governor's Award, and fellowships from the Artist Trust and the Oregon Arts Commission. His work has three times been awarded the Pushcart Prize. He is professor of English and creative writing at Eastern Washington University and senior editor at Eastern Washington University Press. He lives in Spokane.

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Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy poetry and it's fun to read works by local(ish) authors and understand the reference to specific places. But I wasn't overly enamored with Light's Ladder. Some of the poems were interesting, and some were unexpected, but there were none that made me want to add them to my commonplace book or read them again.

[J.I.]

While this book of poems is often creative and interesting (particularly the "historical" poems which turn into fantasy/myth), it is too often absurd for the point of liking language for me to really recommend. Language and sound are wonderful things, but they shouldn't come (in my opinion) at the expense of comprehension, even in poetry.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book of poetry. The single poem 'Running' is moving with beautiful and tragic images of an event that happens to the author and stays with him, revisiting him in his dreams. This is the second book that I have read from the Author. I enjoy his writing!

[SmarterLilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good poems hiding in this book, but overall it suffers from a profound case of Trying Too Hard.