Swarm

by Jorie Graham

Overview

A New York Times Notable Book

"These poems are among the most intense, personal, and ardent [Graham] has written." —Boston Book Review

The eighth collection of poetry from Pulitzer Prize winner Jorie Graham

T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery—and Jorie Graham. The New Yorker places Ms. Graham in this distinguished line of poets, heralding her as a profound voice in American poetry. In Swarm, she further enhances her reputation with a book-length sequence of verse that is a stunning work of grandeur.

The New Republic writes, "for 'swarm,' in other words...read 'be born again.' Graham is writing about a spiritual turning point, a new beginning.... Beauty—that is, the pure sense-perception which has long been a concern for Graham—is no longer the most important criterion. Now goodness is...[and] the idea of submission, of obedience, without understanding: one must 'yield' before 'hearing the reason' for yielding."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060935092
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/05/2001
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.28(d)

About the Author

Jorie Graham is the author of fourteen collections of poems. She has been widely translated and has been the recipient of numerous awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize, the Forward Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the International Nonino Prize. She lives in Massachusetts and teaches at Harvard University.

Read an Excerpt

from The Reformation Journal

The wisdom I have heretofore trusted was cowardice, the leaper.

I am not lying. There is no lying in me,

I surrender myself like the sinking ship,

a burning wreck from which the depths will get theirs when the heights have gotten theirs.

My throat is an open grave. I hide my face.

I have reduced all to lower case.

I have crossed out passages.

I have severely trimmed and cleared.

Locations are omitted.

Uncertain readings are inserted silently.

Abbreviations silently expanded.

A "he" referring to God may be capitalized or not.

(is crying now)          show me

is crying now            (what's wrong)

in a strange tree    of atoms    of

too few            more         no wonder

Give me the glassy ripeness

Give me the glassy ripeness in failure

Give me the atom laying its question at the bottom of nature

Send word                                    Clear fields

Make formal event                                 Walk

                                        Turn back

Reduce all to lower case        Have reduced all

Cross out passages             Have inserted silently

is there a name for?

glassy ripeness

in failure

born and raised

and you?

(go back)                        (need more)

having lived it               leaves it possible

fear    lamentation    shame    ruin    believe    me

explain      given to

explain      born of

Absence isodious                        to God

I'm asking

Unseen unseen                      the treasure unperceived

Unless you compare            the treasure may be lost

Oh my beloved                    I'm asking

More atoms, more days, the noise of the sparrows, of the universals

Yet colder here now than in

the atom still there at the bottom of nature

that we be founded on infinite smallness

which occasions incorruption or immortality"

(incorruption because already as little as it can be)

(escape square, wasted square, safety square, hopeless square)

"to all except anguish the mind soon adjusts"

have reduced, have trimmed, have cleared, have omitted

have      abbreviations      silently      expanded

to what               avail

explain       asks to be followed

explain       remains to be seen

 

Editorial Reviews

"Graham's poetry is among the most sensuously embodied and imaginative writing we have." — New York Times Book Review

"From a noted syntax of elaboration, a poetics of copula, [Graham] has pared a syntax of implication, the poetics of meanwhile. And yet, these poems are among the most intense, personal, and ardent that she has written....Swarm is a startling departure for Graham, and an incredibly complex and surprising one." — Boston Book Review

"In Swarm, her eighth collection of poems, Jorie Graham proves once again to be the most formidable and innovative voice in contemporary poetry...Readers who abandon the need to control the text will be rewarded with an exhilerating ride in Swarm." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"In Swarm, Jorie Graham once again puts herself at risk exploring (exploding?) our notions of subjectivity by exploiting the disjunctive posibilities offered by form. Her uniquely flexible style is punctuated by fragments and gaps that at once both cut across and define the poetic landscape fissures that remind us of our own fragmentary self...Graham's poetic voice expresses a unique individuality that dares to encouter that which is beyond itself...Graham is quite clearly one of the most distinctive and exciting poets writing today." — Virginia Quarterly Review

"What Graham's fan's love is here: abstruse yet gratifying formulations...Her lines act out the mind's movement, script the mind's dialogue, without ever sinking to dull description or exposition." — Time Out

"What Jorie Graham gives us in Swarm, and has given us in previous books, is the meticulous repair of the cracks, the ambitious return to the once-bright hues of the abandoned fresco." — Miami Herald

"Graham is one of the most important living poets, and her control of her craft is undisputed." — Library Journal

From the Publisher

Jorie Graham proves once again to be the most formidable and innovative voice in contemporary poetry.... An exhilarating ride in Swarm.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Capacious talent.... The bodiless virtuosity of formal mastery has met the flexibility and passion of the mind and eye at liberty.

Harvard Review

These poems are among the most intense, personal, and ardent [Graham] has written.

Boston Book Review

Graham is quite clearly one of the most distinctive and exciting poets writing today.

Virginia Quarterly Review