Paul MarianiSalvage OperationsNew and Selected PoemsOf Paul Mariani's poems, Robert Creeley has written that they possess "the singular authority of brutal, precise, present life and an art that is classis in its hard-earned resources. This is poetry uniquely of this moment's 'America.' " And now, in twenty-seven new poems and selections from three previous collections, Mariani continues his exploration of America. In their attempts to understand how myths, memory, and language reshape us, Mariani's narratives move from the simple eloquence of common speech to the elevated style of earlier forms of verse as he explores his own roots in America, from his boyhood on Long Island to his adult life in western Massachusetts. He writes about a father's love for his sons, immigrant America, a boy's initiation into manhood, the strong and rugged values of the working class, odes to the natural world and to America's great artists, while always paying tribute to the great poets of his past. There is an honest and generous integrity in this voice—one that continually strives for moral courage to salvage what it can out of our chaos. "This book brings promises fulfilled and further promise shown. . . . Paul Mariani seeks, in tight quatrains, to contain a painful life's experience—but to encompass its humor and its passions as well. . . . This important book deserves a wide hearing."—Booklist 
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1991 / paper / ISBN 0-393-30759-X / 188 pages / 5-1/2" x 8-1/4" / Poetry | |||||
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