Poems that promise bliss and deliver more often than one might expect.
A breathless, ambitious poetry book about the wonders of this world and the joys that lie beyond it.
Gillette (The Shaman’s Secret, 1997, etc.) counts himself among those people for whom poetry isn’t merely words artfully arranged, but a vehicle that can bring people closer to ultimate realities—to enlightenment, to the transcendent, even to God. He calls his poems “lyrical illuminations” that may aid readers in “realizing ourselves as Spirit.” This realization, he says, is also an “unfolding process of gradual ‘divinization,’ of a lifting up of who and what we are toward greater and ever more inclusive oneness with Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.” Of course, the process of this ascent begins here on Earth, and some of the poet’s most beautiful works are nature poems that sing the splendors of the mundane. So the gorgeous “March Dawn” begins, “Dawn launches from the south-east through backyard trees, / verging the undergrowth, cathedraling our lawn. / Long-drawn extruded wash of white, it crashes soundless / past buds, articulating leaves / like a super-celestial wave.” Gillette’s dramatic verb choices—from “launches” to “verging,” “crashes” to “articulating”—fill his verse with a sense of excitement and anticipation. Although the scene here is a simple sunrise, the poet stages it as if it were a fireworks display. Further, his daring but precise diction allows him to get away with nonstandard, unexpected participles like “cathedraling.” Eventually, Gillette’s far-reaching collection takes off, and a late piece called “En-Heavening” veritably vibrates as it rises: “Pelting up those fabled sea-blue roads on high, invisible / to all but those who know them—this, with inward visioning— / I race the frigid winds which whip the tops of violet cumuli / to froth and spume.” There’s only one word for such verse: exultant. And Gillette pulls it off without a trace of mawkishness or sentiment.
Poems that promise bliss and deliver more often than one might expect.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-77164-8
Page Count: 590
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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