| 
|
Paradise
Poems by Stephen Gibson
A
journey in search of place
In Paradise,
Stephen Gibson's fourth poetry collection, we are taken on
a journey through history and myth, wars past and present,
public discoveries and private loss. The search begins and
ends with some of the great art and great ruins in cities
that once composed part of the Grand Tour of another century.
In the collection's final poem, "Ghosts," in which
an ironical fashion shoot takes Rome's ruins as its backdrop
-"this outcrop of ruin isn't just urinal, / but also
restaurant"-the reader sees the implications and repercussions
of such a journey. Meanwhile, in lines set closer to home,
early-twentieth-century crime-scene photos from New York City
inspire a horrifying sequence of poems where we become part
of a perverse Grand Tour in reverse. These images recall the
millions of immigrants who came to America's shores in search
of paradise and whose voyages ended
with strangulation in tenement basements and rooftop bludgeonings-crimes,
the poems suggest, that were perpetrated both by strangers
and by acquaintances, spouses, lovers, or friends.
As
the reader confronts past horrors and present truths as well
as the speaker's personal ones (an abused mother, a shellshocked
father), it becomes apparent that the paradise sought–not
in the hereafter but in the here and now-lies just beyond
reach. It all ends, suggest these verses, with the understanding
that behind everything we find nothing more divine than the
human.
“As
he does in Frescoes and Masaccio’s Expulson,
Stephen Gibson mines the richest world we know, that of Renaissance
giants who gave us so much beauty, so much pain. Like theirs,
Gibson’s work is both luscious and rueful, and when
I read these poems, each as carefully wrought as a goldsmith’s
tray or bracelet, suddenly I feel deeply and happily human.”
—David Kirby, author of The House on Boulevard St.
“Every
glimpse of paradise must be paid for by a visit to hell, or
that’s what Stephen Gibson seems to be saying in Paradise.
St. Catherine and a blonde junkie inhabit the same poem and
the same world. A café in Venice cannot help you hide
from the grim face of war, the current conflagrations and
ones that have left their scars on the past. Italy is where
this books starts with its images of the Virgin and the saints,
but even in the glories of art there are shots of sex and
murder. And this impulse finds its apotheosis in Gibson’s
series of ghazals that take an unwavering look at NYC crime
scene photos, the paradise of ordinary life cut short by guns
or gas or fists. It is this madness that is his real subject.
How do we live with the monsters inside us even in this paradise
of beauty that is our world?”
—Barbara Hamby, author of Babel and All-Night
Lingo Tango
“Paradise
is all that it advertises and more. Against a backdrop of
urbane Italian tableaux, artistic masterpieces, and crime
scene photographs, these narratives are by turns ecstatic,
infernal and purgatorial, all in service of a book-length
musée de beaux arts that would have dazzled Auden.
A master of surprising and unforgettable juxtaposition, Gibson
invokes myth, history and the crises of the moment to reveal
both ‘the anonymous connection to all damage’
and the necessity of empathy. His combination of poise and
urgency is a rare and precious achievement.”
—R. T. Smith, author of Outlaw
Style: Poems
Stephen
Gibson is the author of three previous poetry
collections, Frescoes (2009 poetry book prize from
Lost Horse Press), Masaccio’s Expulsion (2006
poetry book prize from MARGIE/IntuiT House), and Rorschach
Art (Red Hen Press). He is a past Individual Artist Fellowship
recipient from the State of Florida in both poetry and fiction.
February
$16 paper
5 1/2 x 8 1/2, 70 pages
ISBN 978-1-55728-959-9
Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize Finalist
|
|
