Ziggurat by Peter Balakian

Ziggurat by Peter Balakian

"Warhol/Electric Chair/'63": The red spreads like Christmas wrapping - the green, a field in a Caucasian rug. It's almost beautiful without the metal plates for the head (though the plug on the floor is visible). Before decorator colors & Hockney, Calvin Klein in the summery Hamptons, before there were - switches to break the flow my mother used to say never touch a radio when you're in the bathtub, never fly a kite near transmission lines. But still, it's furniture still, it's a typical American way to go - it's Sing Sing, the silhouette of Ethel Rosenberg. In the rheostatic air, the absent man heard "She Loves You", the British invasion and the flat line arrived at once. Outside Negroes were eaten by dogs. Johnson was sworn in. Cuba turned red in the green sea. In his first book of poems since his highly acclaimed "June-tree", Peter Balakian continues to define himself as one of the most distinctive voices of his generation. Exploring history, self, and imagination, as well as his ongoing concerns with catastrophe and trauma, many of Balakian's new poems wrestle with the aftermath and reverberations of 9/11. Whether reliving the building of the World Trade Towers in the inventive forty-three-section poem that anchors the book, walking the ruins of the Bosnian National Library in Sarajevo, meditating on Andy Warhol's silk screens, or considering the confluence of music, language, and memory, Balakian continues his meditations on history, as well as on the harshness and beauty of contemporary life, that his readers have enjoyed over the years. In sensual, layered, and sometimes elliptical language, Balakian in "Ziggurat" explores absence, war, love, and art in a new age of American uncertainty.

"Balakian's poems create a world sustained by the power of associations, in which borders get thinned out and lives that seem unconnected flow on each otherEven as he focuses on his relationship with the world, he avoids indulging in monologue, instead using reportorial diction to sketch flashes of scenes that seem as if they are taken by cameras with cracked lenses.... Aesthetically rich and engaging; recommended for all serious poetry readers." (Library Journal)"

Peter Balakian is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor in Humanities and professor of English at Colgate University. He is the author of five books of poems and three prose works, including The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response, a New York Times best seller; and Black Dog of Fate, a memoir.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780226035642
ISBN 10	0226035646
Title	Ziggurat
Author	Peter Balakian
Series	Phoenix Poets
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	The University of Chicago Press
Year published	2010-09-30
Number of pages	88
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.