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A poetry on the dissolution of place, of home, of urban decay transformed by capital into sterility. Ed Roberson deserves a larger readership than he has—among lists of praise for the "difficult" contemporary poets, I rarely see his name. Especially now with Google running awry and changing the city at such a rate, he is the prescient voice of my maternal home in Pittsburgh. The risk is made clear as to what is at stake, for community, for self, for cities, without any compromise on Roberson's p...
City Eclogue by Ed RobersonBook where. Get a sense of what is said and taking what is said pump it up and put it into the histories. A history set like a chemistry set. But not about histories, not concerned with history/ies as an end. No end to. What is said. Sayings aftershock. Proceeds of an aftershock. The scene. The version. The double version. All that still shuffles what decisions to make. Which who we were when we are going there.
The ruins of a modern city gets a harsh but humanistic treatment in Roberson's City Eclogue. As per the title, the shepherds gather and discuss what has befallen their flock--in this case the various citizens of NYC speaking on the destruction surrounding the city that they care for and in return cares for the shepherds. Strangely, many of the conversations feel solitary, as if the speaker is speaking to absence or speaking to everyone at once, which is to say we have some great isolated speech
This book is actually pretty incredible. Ed Roberson is what happens when multiculturalism meets avante-garde. He has this incredible way of getting the most out of each word, using both its figurative and literal meaning in service of the poem, and he multiplies possibilities of meaning without taking away from the poem's purpose. If all opposites in poetry (high brow vs. low brow, accessibility vs. "experimental") could find a perfect balance together, then they've done so in this book. Ed Rob...
Cover to cover, one of the most engaging books of poetry I've read this year. Funny thing is I read it last year but in the strobe light of a punishing workload I wasn't up to the task. This is a book that demands time--Roberson's lines are wound tight, move between image and idea in short, spry spaces, and thematics are explored through accretion over the course of sequences and the collection. Turning to my own reading, reminds me of Stevensian logopoetics, Pope L's vertical politics, WCW a la...
The central sequence of this volume, "Beauty's Standing," is a brilliant evocation of the psychic landscape of urban America, seen from an angle which cross-references African American history--especially the unfulfilled promise of the Civil Rights Movement--with the commercial wilderness. In that sequence and in several of the be-bop inflected shorter lyrics--there are references to Charlie Parker and Theolonious Monk--Robeson does a beautiful job of capturing the feeling of being on edge, feel...
He manages to mix such definite objects, the city, it’s occupants, the monuments they erect with more abstract ideas of what it is to live day to day. I can’t really do him justice but Roberson is unmatched in my opinion when it comes to making beautiful, opaque statements about life.
June book club with Ed Roberson in attendance
