The Singing Knives

by Frank Stanford

Book by Stanford, Frank

Genres: Poetry

59 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Frank Stanford was a prolific American poet. He is most known for his epic, The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You— a labyrinthine poem without stanzas or punctuation. In addition, Stanford published six shorter books of poetry throughout his 20s, and three posthumous collections of his writings (as well as a book of selected poems) have also been published.

Just shy of his 30th birthday, Stanford died on June 3, 1978 in his home in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the victim of three self-inflicted pistol wounds to the heart. In the three decades since, he has become a cult figure in American letters.

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesus Christ. Why didn't someone tell me to read him before this? He's the Cormac McCarthy of verse. Now I must read everything.

[Ray Nessly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
"Oh sweet Jesus the levees that break in my heart"

Highlights: 'The Nocturnal Ships of the Past'
'The Picture Show Next Door to the Stamp Store in Downtown Memphis'


The Minnow

If I press
on its head,
the eyes
will come out
like stars.
The ripples
it makes
can move
the moon.

[Shawn Aldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Stanford is the man I would be if I had shot myself three times in the heart.


He destroys me.

[Matthew Boylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Oh Sweet Jesus the levees that break in my heart”

Dark, raw, original, transgressive, complex, violent – all superlatives in the case of Frank Stanford’s poetry, and the words in which this brief collection The Singing Knives can be described. I wish his books weren’t all out of print, because I am now on the hunt.

[Bjorn Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise, brutal and intense. Stanford fits a blunt, straightforward style perfectly with the details of a backwoods life of violent revenge. The poems take on a hallucinatory nature, when the scariest of dreamworld language is in fact real life, where zero rule of law is the law of the land. The poems embody an edgy honesty coming from a writer who shot himself in the head three times in committing suicide at age 30.

One of the most indelible poems, "WISHING MY WIFE HAD ONE LEG":

Caryatid with eyes of nails
always being driven
with thighs of a canoe
and of horses fighting
with the back of nine maidens drowning
Caryatid with the hair of a flag
raised in battle
with the thoughts of a severed member
and of orphans sleeping
with nipples of amethyst on lifted chalices
Caryatid with the neck of a bow
drawn towards the forest
with the sex of a ship coming about
and of a wing in a bamboo cage
with the voice of a silent chisel
Caryatid with the heart of a feather


What is particularly heartbreaking is the way Stanford combines the most horrific acts of violence with the most tender potential of human beings, here exemplified by the joining of "thoughts of a severed member" with "nipples of amethyst on lifted chalices." Stanford combines the most rugged language - Chainsaw / The man cut his hand off at dawn / I heard him yell / I set up in bed / He ran past the window / "Don't let the dog get it" he said (from the last poem, the epic "SNAKE DOCTORS") - with more sophisticated references: "dancing teachers weeping in their offices; / toads with bellies as quiet / as girls asleep in mansions, dreaming (from "Transcendence of Janus").

Like poet Larry Levis, Stanford returns to the same themes, images and characters throughout the 63-page book as if it were all one poem broken up with heavy pauses.

The stark language lends itself to an apocalyptic aura. The feeling I got from the book is that the truth is so painful that only people close to death can ever be totally honest.

[Sean A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

wowz. frank u killed yrself and u kill me for those moments when i am reading u. and yet it is the most strangely pleasurable form of death. a death beneath the dead toenails of lorca or vallejo swimming downriver with crawfish in the arkansas river. all those times the rolling stones collectively listened to black blues music while taking some sort of drug just can't compare to any of your poems. i've been to eureka springs where you lived and it's a whacky tourist town in the ozarks it's kindof hard to imagine all yr deaths in the woods just outside of that town, but i'll take your word for it. there was that one time my partner and i went to a winery there and were served by a woman with a "destroy everything" tattoo on her left arm. she said if her husband touched a certain kind of her wine, she would punch him in the head. so there's that...

[pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extrañísimo pero vívido poemario. Frank Stanford describe bizarros eventos de su ambiente, rural, de pueblo, pero llega a parecer circense o hasta de sueños. Las imágenes son espectaculares y difíciles de olvidar.
En uno de sus poemas, el más largo y último del libro, describe cómo un borracho se corta su mano usando una motosierra, y bromea que pensó que era una guitarra. Seguidamente el protagonista, un ser tal vez aún más extraño, la usa para orinar, le habla, la pone junto a una foto de Elvis, saluda con ella a los pescadores y finalmente, cuando las moscas molestan demasiado, la guarda en el ahumador. Todo esto, de entrada insensanto e imposible, lo describe de forma hermosa, armoniosa y con un sentido de normalidad que nos hace cuestionarnos si realmente pasó.
Es difícil explicarlo, mejor léanlo

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really glad this is back in print.

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was thinking about back then
before I thought I
heard chords on a flute
when there was no young bird
beating its wings inside my belly
no light in my eyes
This was long ago
before the wise shadows
of the fantoccini
commanded the land
when the moon
was the blind eye of a fish
in the back of a cave

[Andy Lagerstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeously disturbed Southern Gothic poetry. This collection is much better and makes more sense as a collection than The Light the Dead See, even though they have several of the same poems.

[TK · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Quiver

Come back dull and bloody all of you
let it hold the shame inside
itself like a helmet
bring a little soil each time
for a pillow
you aren’t as many as you were

[Sam Mcalilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

thankful this is my native tongue

[McKenzie Tozan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and haunting; this collection leaves your spine chilled, images flashing, with a need to return to nature, whether or not it is a full return or a night's walk. Stanford reminds of the need to stay fresh in writing, with a shift approximately halfway through that takes us from humanistic relationships to humans relating to nature. Imagistic and heartfelt and a much-read-again. This book needs to make it to my shelves as soon as possible.

[Maddelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knives, fire, blood, boats, the moon. Pleasantly violent characters and matter-of-fact prose lines. A South all of its own...

The dogs woke me up
I looked out the window

Jimmy ran down the road
With the knife in his mouth
He was naked
And the moon
Was a dead man floating down the river

--from "The Singing Knives"

Favorites: "The Nocturnal Ships of the Past," "Belladonna"

[Charlie O'Hay · Rating 5 out of 5]

One never feels entirely safe in a Stanford poem, as they don't stray far from the blade. His images, rooted in the Deep South, and are filled with scars, buried secrets, and haunted dreams. Brilliant writing that cuts to the bone.

[Carmelo Valone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inside this little poetry book holds Frank Stanford's first collection of poetry. Roughly for me, I happen to believe that these poems are mostly about the dare I say it, the beauty of violence and those surreal, oddball-ish long, dark and yep weird nights.

[Cindy John]

"Oh Sweet Jesus the levees that break my heart"

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful first book for Frank. One of my favorite poets and the book is well worth the read for any fans of poetry.

[Joe Romano · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I saw the snake doctors riding each other."

[Thai Son · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great stuff, but not to my taste much.
My personal favorite would be Narcissus to Achilles. Much less graphic and condensed than the rest.

[Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stanford was pretty brilliant...

[Sam Rasnake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing poet & and a stunning first book.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snake Doctors.

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 5 out of 5]

REVELATORY.

He is an American Lorca. Surreal. Heartbreaking. Funny as hell.