Cascade Experiment: Selected Poems

by Alice Fulton

Highlights from each of Alice Fulton's groundbreaking, prize-winning poetry books. Over the past twenty years, Alice Fulton has emerged as one of the most brilliant and honored poets of her generation. She is also among the most thrillingly inventive, compassionate, and necessary. Cascade Experiment charts the evolution of a poetics that revises the limits of language, emotion, and thought.

Genres: Poetry

218 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

For a photo gallery, the story behind the stories, and a reading group guide for The Nightingales of Troy, please visit alicefulton.com

Reviews

[Lucca]

Actually one of the most phenomenal poets I’ve ever encountered

[Carol Painter]

And for what is apparently my 3rd re-reading of this masterpiece...let me simply say:
Oh, Alice... My eternal love and admiration to you.




Almost impossible to put into words what Alice's poetry can do to me, but I'll try.
First, let me say that I have always been fascinated with the mind, and these poems are an amazing look into a very complex mind. There is no way I can say that I understand many of these poems or precisely what she was thinking. It does mean that she has a special ability to somehow grab my own imagination and catch me up in most everything she writes, even when I find myself almost floundering trying to figure out where she was coming from when writing them. But, luckily, I can let go of that need to fully "get it" and that's when I am caught by her words & feelings. And I love that. So I imagine I will keep looking for more Alice Fulton poetry, and I can also so very highly recommend her story collection The Nightingales of Troy.

I read these poems the first time from a friend's copy and didn't want to mark her book. Today I just ordered my own copy so that I can re-read all of these poems, but especially my favorites (of which there are currently 17). And I will happily circle/mark/question and perhaps even commit to memory my favorite lines.

[Jacob Lehman]

I had the good fortune to take Alice Fulton's poetry-writing class back in 2004 as an undergrad. At the time I was still entranced by meter and rhyme, and I don't think I appreciated the depth of her work. She was a fantastic teacher, though, able to help a poet find his/her voice, and not just imposing her own style or preferences on the student. I haven't written poetry regularly in years, but reading her work makes me want to write again. The world needs more such thoughtful, soulful, heart-and-mindful writers (and people).

[Cheryl Walsh]

I'm not entirely sure why these poems didn't speak to me. There are some very good lines in them, but on the whole, I wasn't that interested. It may simply be that the content doesn't pique my curiosity enough for me to be captivated by the form. I'm nevertheless glad to have taken the opportunity to sample Fulton's work.

[Yanjue Xu]

Why is there no cascade experiment??

[Moira]

The way Fulton plays with sound is knocking me out. Her skill with word play reminds me of McHugh, or at its best, Berryman, that limber master.

[Sean Patrick]

A sweeping inventory of Fulton's poetry, from early lyrics to later and larger works, exploratory and fractal in nature. A great poet I'm surprised I haven';t heard more talk about.

[Chuck O'Connor]

A series of great poems that combine universal and personal grief relative to temporal life.

[Bill]

Selected poems from her 5 previous books.