Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 07:30 PM
MATTHEA HARVEY
(from the website)
Modern Life ($14 Graywolf), Matthea Harvey’s third collection, lives up to its title with a vengeance. This is “modern life” at the intersection of mythology and genetic engineering. Her writing is surprising: wild, lovely, and lyrically descriptive (“I marveled at the maple syrup moon –- / it had a luster unlike any linoleum”), yet grounded in the confusing nightmare of an on-going apocalypse. Harvey’s poems and prose poems are neither simple nor sweet, and, oh, they get under the skin. In the sections “The Future of Terror” and “Terror of the Future,” the poetry takes place in the decrepit aftermath of some off-stage conflict. The speaker in those poems survives in a surreal landscape, a survival certainly requiring wit – “I even invented / a motto for myself: Never Say Mayday / When There’s Still Marzipan.” Sadness, fear, pitch-dark humor, and the drive to soldier on through grim and tedious mayhem come to life in this startlingly singular collection.
Instead I was watching this:
(twice!)
I am sure there is a circle in hell waiting for the likes of me.
5 comments:
Oooooh, what delicious and indulgent
trash-TV! I loved the long flowy
purple gown that twisted up and around the model's neck.
Jacob's sick so went to bed early, but I am so excited to sit down and watch it tonight on TiVo!
I will be in that other circle, the one reserved for people who stay at home and watch boring TV shows and fall asleep with the cat. Unsettling visions of Dante.
I will most likely be in circle 4. I watched this three times last night. Sleeping between 9a and 5p does this to one.
I was mighty impressed with the oddly birdlike Christian's jacket. Plus he's a Baltimore boy, so I feel like I should give him my semi-hometown support.
Um, I swore off reality tv. Then Christian and his magical hair drew me back in.
Post a Comment