Sugartown: Poems

by David Rivard

Overview

The unillusioned, effervescent new collection by David Rivard, whose poetry "leaves me with a desire to be permanently friends with this mysterious kind of grace" (Tomaz Salamun)

That the sun stands apart
from all that it abuts,
unwilling to judge it,
may be our only real hope.
—from "We Either Do or Don't,
But the Problem Evolves Anyway"

In Sugartown, David Rivard's fourth collection, the poems unwind with the speed of urgent talk, detailing with mischievous humor and fierce candor the catch-as-catch-can experience of American existence. Language and merchandise pass over us in continual feed, and Rivard adeptly, subtly renders this predicament and its costs, while offering in these poems the alternative of paying attention—to one's self, to others, to the seemingly misbegotten world.

The shards of experiences in Sugartown are glimpsed out of the corner of one's eye, in a blur of speed. The shapes are often familiar: the happy candy of cell-phone chatter, menus built to comfort the wealthy, emotions turned into intellectual property rights. Underneath this stream of experience, and traveling at exactly the same speed, is the clarity and surprise that our lives—our small triumphs and failures—seem to matter so much more than anyone would have expected.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555974350
Publisher:	Graywolf Press
Publication date:	12/27/2005
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	5.92(w) x 8.86(h) x 0.29(d)

About the Author

David Rivard is the author of Bewitched Playground; Wise Poison, which won the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; and Torque. He teaches at Tufts University and in the MFA Writing Program at Vermont College. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

Jazz rhythms and capital-R Romantic hopes infuse Rivard's fourth collection, a comeback of sorts from 2000's Bewitched Playground featuring "three distinct/ not to mention// cloudless/ dimensions to walk inside/ the visible." It's not all sweetness and light, however. Devoted to sketches of human universals, Rivard, who teaches at Tufts University, also gathers plenty of local color: he sees Boston and Cambridge as cities where too much has happened-too much history, too many young people on benders, too much higher education: "the boat crew/ from Alpha Chi" sails down the Charles, and adults console themselves with aquarium shows, but "the wish to be given back/ the child you were once won't work." His free verse manages unusual variety: drastically variant line lengths and extraordinarily long sentences make up his defiant, committed search for grace. Some of Rivard's most sensitive poems concern parents and grade-school-aged children: others are simply sketches of urban scenes in the offhand yet observant manner of August Kleinzahler, a "day of creeping cars rain-flogged," a glimpse of "the skates of a weeping nun." (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

This book, timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's inauguration, crafts an exciting story of the life of St. Benedict of Nursia, who founded Western monasticism in the sixth century and later became the patron saint of Europe. Historian Butcher (medieval & Renaissance literature, Shorter Coll.) presents a time line of events, a biography of Benedict's life, and a summary of the Rules of St. Benedict. Given that little is known about this historical figure, Butcher relies on studies of the late Roman times and the "Dialogues" of Pope Gregory the Great, who had documented talks with those who had known Benedict. A similar work is Esther de Waal and Kathleen Norris's Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict, which serves as a source of guidance, support, and comfort for people dealing with life challenges based around the Rules. The difference with Butcher's book, however, is the exploration of Benedict's unusual life; his relationship with his twin sister, Scholastica; and the illumination of the saint's miracles. The book's readability will make it easy for patrons to escape into late Roman culture and find peace in a monastic simplicity.-L. Kriz, West Des Moines P.L., IA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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