Practice, Restraint

by Laura Sims

Overview

Laura Sims's debut is the work of an organic synthesizer, one practiced in the restrained art of listening. Her poems exhibit an attenuation that is akin to devotion: By means of maxim and miniaturization, she sorts and stacks the products of humanness. Memes and phonemes of a haiku-like fineness are thereby invited to break the surface of the page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780974090993
Publisher:	Fence Magazine, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/01/2005
Pages:	99
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Laura Sims is the author of two books of poetry: STRANGER (Fence Books, 2009); and PRACTIC, RESTRAINT (Fence Books, Alberta Prize, 2005); and of four chapbooks, including Corrections (Bronze Skull Press, 2006) and Bank Book (Answer Tag Press, 2004). Her work was included in the anthology, The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century (Cracked Slab Books, 2007), and individual poems have appeared in the journals: DENVER QUARTERLY, Colorado Review, AUFGABE, CRAYON, Cab/Net, Octopus, First Intensity, 26, How2, Parcel, 6X6, La Petite Zine, Columbia Poetry Review, JUBILAT, Lit, and FENCE, among others. She has published book reviews in Boston Review, Jacket, and Rain Taxi; an overview essay on the work of Diane Williams in The Review of Contemporary Fiction (2003); and the article, "David Markson and the Problem of the Novel," in New England Review (2008). She is currently writing essays on the short poem, and working on a poetry manuscript, tentatively titled My god is this a man. She is a co-editor of Instance Press, a curator for the Segue Reading Series, and a volunteer at 826. She lives with Corey and their cat Gomi-chan in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Table of Contents

LOST BOOK
"Winter in You"
Your Second Head Platitude Lyrical Plot, with Ephemera Resurrection, Parade Ruth Former Relation Spin Little House BANK BOOK Bank One — Bank Thirty-Three WORK BOOK Hourly/Daily Public Works Moses Work WAR BOOK Africa Homage Suffering Succotash Musical, Chemical, Figurine Democracy PAPERBACK BOOK Lake Former Quarry Song Eternity vs. The Throttler Restaurants, The Howling Alley, Fields
"Hold Me Closer than That"
Locust vs. Anchorite Paperback Poem

What People are Saying About This

Rae Armantrout

"Laura Sims's work engages the lyric critically on its own ground. This is especially true in the fascinating 'Bank' series, where the poet subtly tags the lyric's chronic preoccupations with the tracking devices of financial institutions, so that we get, 'the blue of withdrawal,' or 'A peacock/ . . . /refuting/what rifles report from her far-flung states.' In these poems we move immediately beyond innocence. Sims gives us a sly, fast-paced, strangely resonant form of minimalism."