Rituals - Rae Armantrout

Today's book of poetry:  Rituals.  Rae Armantrout.  above/ground press.  Ottawa, Ontario.  2013.

This short chapbook by Rae Armantrout from the ever industrious above/ground press, is proof pudding that good things do come in small packages.  This thin work and these terse poems play much bigger than they first appear.

Rituals

     1

In this now ancient ritual

a succession of young women

are saucy,

which is to say they name

common objects and relations

as if they had mastered them

but shouldn't.

Each receives false approbation.

     2

As Xmas sells winter

to its prisoners.

As warmth

feels like love;

and love is warmth

only more capricious.

Fingers uncurl.

Organs expand

and rise

toward a surface

that must never

be broken.

...

Armantrout's succinct style reminds me of a car that's been chopped, channelled, tuned.  Everything unnecessary has been torn out, cut away, thrown out.  What you are left with are the essentials for acceleration, thrust.  Maybe an automobile analogy is the wrong way to go but these poems are lean and crisp.  To paraphrase Ezra Pound, Armantrout is purifying the language of the tribe.

Believing

     1

When did you first learn

that the bursts

of color and sound

were intended for you?

When did you unlearn this?

     2

Believing yourself

to have a secret identity

can be a sign 

of madness.

On the other hand,

the lack

of a secret identity

can lead to depression.

Many have found it useful

to lie down

as men

believing themselves

to be little girls

or as girls

believing themselves

to be mermaids

stranded

in their own bodies.

...

Rae Armantrout's most recent book Just Saying was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2013. Prior to that - Versed, (Wesleyan, 2009), won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Books Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award.  Armantrout's publications and awards form a list as long as your arm.

The astounding above/ground press, which is run by the tireless Rob McLennan, continues to astound by publishing some of the best writers on the planet.  These non-descript, photo-copied, gems probably form one of the better catalogues in the small press world.

Rituals was Rae Armantrout's second above/ground press title as she had previously published Custom in 2012.

Conversation: Poet Rae Armantrout.  From PBS NewsHour

Rae Armantrout reading from her Pulitzer Prize winning book Versed.  From 92 Street Y.

The Holloway Series in Poetry - Rae Armantrout

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