Chromatic

by H.L. Hix

H.L. Hix’s newest poetry book, Chromatic, bears as its epigraph the philosopher Baruch de Spinoza’s assertion that “desire is the very nature or essence of every single individual.” The three sequences of poems in Chromatic test that claim. Each has a borrowed title: “Remarks on Color” from Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Eighteen Maniacs” from Duke Ellington, and “The Well-Tempered Clavier” from J.S. Bach. Exploiting those predecessors, the poems in Chromatic explore the full range of effects caused by human desire, from ecstasy to suffering.

Chromatic was a National Book Award fi nalist for poetry in 2006.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2006

About the author

H. L. Hix has published an anthology, Wild and Whirling Words: A Poetic Conversation (2004), and eight books of poetry and literary criticism with Etruscan, including Shadows of Houses (2005), Chromatic (2006), God Bless: A Political/Poetic Discourse (2007), Legible Heavens (2008), Incident Light (2009), First Fire, Then Birds (2010), As Easy As Lying: Essays on Poetry (2002), and Lines of Inquiry (2011). He has two more books forthcoming from Etruscan, As Much As, If Not More Than (2013) and I’m Here to Learn to Dream in Your Language (2014).

In addition to having been a finalist for the National Book Award for Chromatic, his awards include the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Peregrine Smith Award, and fellowships from the NEA, the Kansas Arts Commission, and the Missouri Arts Council. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin, taught at Kansas City Art Institute, and was an administrator at The Cleveland Institute of Art, before accepting his current position as professor in the Creative Writing MFA at the University of Wyoming. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and at Shanghai University.

Reviews

[Alyson Hagy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-deserved finalist for a National Book Award, CHROMATIC is one of my favorite books by the ambitious, inventive H.L. Hix. There are three sequences of poems, each different in form although they share a common delight in language and shape. There are also shared themes of desire. My favorites? Very difficult to choose, but on second reading "The Well-Tempered Clavier," poems inspired by Bach in wholly unexpected ways, takes the cake.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me want to read more Hix. Some really great stuff. I especially loved the color suite (I'd give that 5/5 stars alone). Some of the poems are a bit overwrought for my tastes, however. This was especially true in the case of of the "well tempered" poems. I can see them appealing to some, but they weren't my cup of tea.

There's definitely a racial aspect to the "18 maniacs" section, and if you were looking for it you could find it in the other suites as well. This didn't strike me personally as insensitive (though I'm probably not the best judge of that), but I can see it sparking some dialogue which I don't think is a bad thing. I thought it was pretty cool to see Hix playing mercurially with different voices.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of experimental poems about desire, love, ecstasy, and heartbreak.

from Remarks on Color: "I fell in love with the ways I might die, / the elements that might consume me, / earth, water, fire, you."

from Well You Needn't: "The answer. You are. That I am here. / To my existence. On this planet."

from Prelude and Fugue No. 15 in G: "in the end everything gets left out of the story / if I had told better lies I might have believed myself / one mouth trails another mouth through kisses through words / if this answers questions they are not the ones I asked / and certainly not the ones you think I should answer"

[H]

Twists of form and some of its lines were fascinating enough that I kept picking the book back up. "Prelude and Fuge No. 4 in C Sharp Minor" is probably my favorite.

Probably better to approach this by questions: is this racial? blending blues and classical? postmodern impressionistic? using the "primary colors" of language to express emotion? is it somehow thematic by subject matter? are these ghosts speaking and communicating? were the poems just written spontaneously while listening to the corresponding music of the titles?

[Eric Phetteplace]

I move farther and farther from poetry, both in my writing and reading. These are "experimental", which means they'll probably be more palatable than, say, Robert Frost.