Brenda Hillman – författare

Drawing on four decades of work and including new poems published here for the first time, this selection of Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's poetry displays the extraordinary luminosity characteristic of her style - its delicate, meticulous observation, great scenic imagination, and unusual degree of comfort with states of indetermination, contingency, and flux.

The poems in "Writing the Silences" represent more than 60 years of Richard O. Moore's work as a poet. Selected from seven full-length manuscripts written between 1946 and 2008, these poems reflect not only Moore's place in literary history - he is the last of his generation of the legendary group of San Francisco Renaissance poets - but also his reemergence into today's literary world after an important career as a filmmaker and producer in public radio and television. "Writing the Silences" reflects Moore's commitment to freedom of form, his interest in language itself, and his dedication to issues of social justice and ecology.

The poems in Writing the Silences represent more than 60 years of Richard O. Moore’s work as a poet. Selected from seven full-length manuscripts written between 1946 and 2008, these poems reflect not only Moore’s place in literary history—he is the last of his generation of the legendary group of San Francisco Renaissance poets—but also his reemergence into today’s literary world after an important career as a filmmaker and producer in public radio and television. Writing the Silences reflects Moore’s commitment to freedom of form, his interest in language itself, and his dedication to issues of social justice and ecology.

Three Talks is the first prose collection by the award-winning poet and educator Brenda Hillman. These short essays on six M’s of the art of poetry make the form accessible in a novel way, exploring words that might appear incompatible but become dancing partners in Hillman’s artistic vision: metaphor and metonymy; meaning and mystery; magic and morality.First delivered as a series of talks at the University of Virginia, the essays maintain a casual, intimate tone. A consummate artist and technician, Hillman explores a wide array of poetic examples, focusing on method, subject matter, and inspiration to demonstrate how the skills offered by poetry have become critically important for our present moment.

Three Talks is the first prose collection by the award-winning poet and educator Brenda Hillman. These short essays on six M’s of the art of poetry make the form accessible in a novel way, exploring words that might appear incompatible but become dancing partners in Hillman’s artistic vision: metaphor and metonymy; meaning and mystery; magic and morality. First delivered as a series of talks at the University of Virginia, the essays maintain a casual, intimate tone. A consummate artist and technician, Hillman explores a wide array of poetic examples, focusing on method, subject matter, and inspiration to demonstrate how the skills offered by poetry have become critically important for our present moment.

"[Hillman's] work is fierce but loving, risk-taking, and beautiful." — Harvard Review  An iconoclastic ecopoet who has led the way for many young and emerging artists, Brenda Hillman continues to re-cast innovative poetic forms as instruments for tracking human and non-human experiences. At times the poet deploys short dialogues, meditations or trance techniques as means of rendering inner states; other times she uses narrative, documentary or scientific materials to record daily events during a time of pandemic, planetary crisis, political and racial turmoil. Hillman proposes that poetry offers courage even in times of existential peril; her work represents what is most necessary and fresh in American poetry.  During an enchantment in the life  Do you love a living personabsolutely? Tell them now.In a half-unwieldy life you made, underthe hyaline sky, while the deaddrank from zigzag pools nearby,if they saved you in your wild incapacities, in timing of the world's harmin a little pettiness in your own heart while others tookyour madrigals in shreds to a tribunal,when others said you should feel gratefulto be minimally adequate for the world'striple exposure or some tired committee... The ones who love us, how do theybreak through our defenses?We're tired today. Come back later.Their baffled voices melting our wax wallswith a candle, the ones who understandwhat being is—the glowing, the broken, the wheels, the brave ones—they have their courage,you have yours,,,;when you meet the one you love,it is so rare. When you meetthe one who loves you, it is extremely rare.

In the title poem "Fortress", the medieval walled castle is the stronghold in which the family dwells. There are stories here of people in the "fortresses" of the self, the city, or the natural world. All these poems have in common a lyrical approach to solitude ("the only protection / against death/ was to love solitude") and an ironical vision for which love of beauty and the longing for the world are the cure. Hillman combines the imagistic with narrative; in her poems lyricism wars with irony; the solitary noticing consciousness is in control - because the observed world seems beautiful to the observer, great joy is possible despite the sense of difficulty or sorrow. The language here is rich and elegant. Truth is relentlessly addressed.

The last living member of the original circle of Anarcho-pacifist poets at the birth of the San Francisco Renaissance, Richard O. Moore presents his second book, Particulars of Place. The title poem is a meditation on life in the twilight of American Empire, posing the question of how to live in an age of endless warfare. Throughout, Moore's commitment to social justice mingles with his interest in Wittgenstein's linguistic philosophy, resulting in a poetic amalgam unique to Moore himself. Reflecting a lifetime of devotion to the art of poetry, Particulars of Place confirms Moore's paradoxical position as a newly emerging old master.

Emily Dickinson is widely considered to be one of the greatest of American poets. The aphoristic style and wit of much of her verse, its irregular rhymes, directness of expression, and startling imagery have had a profound effect on twentieth-century literature. Over a hundred of Dickinson’s best poems are collected here. These unique and gemlike lyrics are pure distillations of profound feeling and great intellect. They contain a world of imagination, observation, and precisely articulated spiritual and emotional experience. As editor Brenda Hillman says, this small and succinct collection can serve as a guidebook to readers who are exploring the highs and lows of the human experience.