Just Waking

by Howell, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780971726512
• ISBN10: 0971726515
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Lost Horse Pr

Summary

"Christopher Howell's poems rely on a redeeming darkness to bring themselves into the world. Through meditative, short lyrics, and an eerily quiet approach, Howell redefines the place of the self in a poem. These deceptively triumphant views of discovery and survival arrive in a place that welcomes us as both witnesses and participants." - Bloomsbury Review "It is a great pleasure, once again, to listen to the particular play of Christopher Howell s mind, his elegant rhythms and graceful rhetoric; and, beside all that craftsmanship and intelligence, how good to encounter that lovely eye for flesh, for the succulent things of this world." - Patricia Goedicke "Once I began reading Just Waking, I had to read it straight through, late into the night. I had a growing need to experience the way these poems and their many voices move into the world of things and people and ghosts and ideas, with this speculative intelligence, this tender and sometimes comic discourse that by so loving a sense of what is beautiful in being alive always achieves the condition of music. I just didn t want the book to end." - Bill Tremblay "Deep in this book is an unfolding story of waking. Experience resonates clearly, emotively, paradoxically, and the imagination teaches and redeems through inner dialogue and vision. Read Machado and Lyric with Blue Horses to see how moving and masterful a poet Christopher Howell is. If the poet James Wright were still living, we'd have two poets writing with such imperative, beauty, and depth." - James Grabill

Table of Contents

THE FUGITIVE LIFE
Philosopher's Rose	3	(1)
The Hermit, Listening	4	(1)
Close to the Vein	5	(1)
Love's Fugitive on the Run	6	(2)
He Thinks of the Sea	8	(2)
Something to Love	10	(2)
Justice	12	(1)
The Toad Prince	13	(1)
The Physics of Oh	14	(1)
The Hermit's Childhood	15	(2)
The Dove	17	(2)
The Error of Last Resort	19	(1)
The Treetop Mole	20	(2)
If the House	22	(3)
THE CORRESPONDENTS
The Correspondent Before Hand	25	(1)
Dialogue	26	(2)
The Friends	28	(1)
The Fugitive Lover Says "I'm Telling You"	29	(4)
Nefertiti	33	(1)
Wisdom's Silver	34	(1)
We Who Have Found Wisdom	35	(1)
Someone Else	36	(1)
Tough Mothers	37	(1)
The Breakfast Table	38	(2)
Indeed	40	(1)
Through Light Rain I Wave Goodbye	41	(1)
Prayer of the Preblind	42	(1)
Little Story	43	(1)
Deep in the Frame	44	(2)
Here in a Provident Stillness	46	(2)
At Edges of the Sea Time Overlaps	48	(1)
Like Feelings	49	(4)
I'VE NEVER TOLD YOU THIS
I've Never Told You This	53	(1)
The Sigh	54	(2)
Dialogue of the Eyes	56	(2)
Letter from the Base Betrayer	58	(2)
Poem Based on a Chinese Character...	60	(1)
Approching the Blind Date's Door	61	(1)
Two Poems, with Death Betwixt	62	(3)
Machado	65	(1)
Triptych of the Spirit in Repose	66	(3)
The Good Job	69	(1)
Deserted by the Devil	70	(2)
Lyric with Blue Horses	72	(1)
At James Island, Early June	73