Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems

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Poetry. "John Balaban's compelling poems are alive with sensuous experience, his perspicuous language embracing both irony and compassion. A witness to war's savageries and the brutalities of life, this poet yet feels the possibilities of redemption in the natural world, and in the power of poetry: 'Crossing the moonlit fields/stippled bright with human bones,/ Tu Fu wrote that poetry is useless,/ in a poem alive these thousand years'" -Daniel Hoffman.

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Overview

Poetry. "John Balaban's compelling poems are alive with sensuous experience, his perspicuous language embracing both irony and compassion. A witness to war's savageries and the brutalities of life, this poet yet feels the possibilities of redemption in the natural world, and in the power of poetry: 'Crossing the moonlit fields/stippled bright with human bones,/ Tu Fu wrote that poetry is useless,/ in a poem alive these thousand years'" -Daniel Hoffman.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Although only the first of the three sections into which these poems are grouped directly mines Balaban's experiences in Vietnam, bitter memories of that war haunt the entire collection. New poems are interspersed with selections from previous volumes including After Our War and Words for My Daughter. Near the beginning, he writes of the crippled soldiers who came back from Vietnam like "snags and tatters arrived, with immigrant uncertainty,/ in the United States. It was almost home." In the second section, Balaban takes us along on a cross-country journey of discovery. He finds the violence of the war on the road in America as well: after listing a series of shootings gleaned from the news, he observes, "Late at night, when radio waves skip across States,/ you can hear ricochets from Maine to L.A." Seeing the violence of war pervading American society, he sometimes adopts a bitter, sneering stance toward ordinary people. But the book's final section, "Viewing the New World Order," moves unexpectedly, and effectively, from bitterness to hope as Balaban discovers the possibility of reconciliation in the birth of his daughter ("as if you were sent/ to call me back into our helpless tribe") and in his work: "Only poetry lasts./ The walls crumble; Horace endures." (Apr.)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781556591235
  • Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
  • Publication date: 5/1/1997
  • Edition number: 2
  • Pages: 150
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.50 (d)

Meet the Author

John Balaban is the author of a dozen books of poetry, prose, and Vietnamese translations whose prizes include the Lamont Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and two National Book Award nominations. His work has been featured on NPR's "Fresh Air," New York Times, and Utne Reader. He teaches at North Carolina State University.

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Table of Contents

Speak, Memory 5
Lo, He Sees Four Men Loose, Walking in the Midst of the Fire 9
Autumn Landscape 10
Along the Mekong 11
The Guard at the Binh Thuy Bridge 13
Mau Than 14
Carcanet: After Our War 17
The Ship of Redemption 10
The Gardenia in the Moon 20
The Water Buffalo 27
Palindrome for Clyde Coreil in Saigon 29
News Update 30
Erhart 32
Letter from a Bargirl 35
John Steinbeck, IV (1947-1991) 36
Thoughts before Dawn 37
On Reading the Anthology of the Ten Thousand Poets 38
For Mrs. Cam, Whose Name Means "Printed Silk" 39
After Our War 41
Heading Out West 49
Hitch-Hiking and Listening to My CB Walkie-Talkie 51
Story 52
Riding Westward 53
Crossing West Nebraska, Looking for Blue Mountain 55
Sitting on Blue Mountain, Watching the Birds Fly South and Thinking of St. Julien Ravenel Childs 57
Deer Kill 60
Chasing Out the Demons 61
Journey in the Desert 62
Walking Down into Cebolla Canyon 66
Kate and Gary's Bar, Red River, New Mexico 68
Daddy Out Hitch-Hiking at 3:00 A.M. 69
Passing through Albuquerque 70
Portal 71
Agua Fria Y Las Chicharras 72
Eliseo's Cabin, Taos Pueblo 75
Studying the Seasons on Blue Mountain 77
Lovers Near Jemez Springs 80
A Tiny Bird 82
Snowbound 83
Three Ways of Looking at Sparrows 84
Peyote Villanelle 85
The Gift of Morning Water 87
Words for the Dead 89
For My Sister in Warminster General Hospital 90
A Woman Alone on the Road 92
That Man 94
Some Things That Happened before My Daughter's Birth 95
Flying Home 97
Words for My Daughter 103
Spring-Watching Pavilion 106
At 4:00 A.M., Asleep 107
In Celebration of Spring 108
For the Missing in Action 110
Graveyard at Bald Eagle Ridge 111
Hissarlik 112
Hail to the Chief 114
Letters from Across the Sea 115
"The Smell of Autumn Rain..." 118
The Siege 119
All Souls Night 120
Inscriptions from the Black Sea Tombs 123
Poetry Reading at the Varna Ruins 124
Dr. Alice Magheru's Room 125
Collateral Damage 127
Mr. Giai's Poem 129
Dogs, Dreams, and Rain 131
The Chess Player 134
Reading the News and Thinking of the T'ang Poets 135
Atomic Ghost 136
South of L.A. 137
Estuary 138
Tomato Pickers 139
Some Notes on Miami 141
Anna Akhmatova Spends the Night on Miami Beach 146
Sort of a Gay-Bash 147
For John Haag, Logger, Sailor, Housepainter, Poet, Professor, and Grower of Orchids 149
Viewing the New World Order 151
Locust Ghazal-Dazzle 154
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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 22, 2001

    a wealth of glorious insight, perception, and emotions

    the range of viewpoints and angles that Balaban takes emcompasses more than any one person can take in. read only one poem a day, read it over many times, each time you will get more out of it. His subtleties are breathtaking.

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