"Since first reading Jeanne Emrich's tanka in the
early issues of American Tanka" in the late 1990's, I have looked forward
to a collection of her work. Here it is--fifty-six personal lyrics
that, in their points of meditation, existential encounter, and
exquisite craftsmanship, discover a luminous world "in each agate
we dig up/ with our toes." Fresh, poignant, and frequently
startling, the many facets of Emrich's voice reveal a restless and
authentic engagement with the eternal themes of human experience--love, death, conciliation, absence, loss, and that sense of things
that finds us "starting our day with/ tiny, lopsided smiles."
Emrich is one of those rare poets who is able to write, "I do not
hesitate/ to risk everything" and make the courage behind the
words into something we can pick up and hold in our hands.
Without doubt, Emrich has mastered the magic of the five-phrase
tanka. She is a poet to watch in the makeover of the short poem
in English."
--Michael McClintock, author of
Letters in Time:
Sixty Short Poems
Some verses from The Pleiades at Dawn:
suddenly warm . . .
little avalanches of snow
falls from our roof
the weight of winter dreams
too heavy to bear
autumn in Paris . . .
after leaving the bookstore
loved by Hemingway
I write a poem on a leaf
for the river to read
undetected
by airport security
a tiny leaf
stuck to my sandal
from our walk together
Jeanne Emrich is a Minnesota poet and artist. This is her first
collection of tanka.
The Pleiades at Dawn, with foreword by
Amelia Fielden, 75 pages, 5 1/2 x 7 3/4", perfect bound.
Edina, Minnesota: Lone Egret Press, 2007.
$14.00 plus $2.00 S&H in the USA
$16.00 plus $2.00 S&H Canada and overseas
To order: send check or money order payable to
"Lone Egret Press,"
6566 France Avenue South, Ste. 1210, Edina, MN, 55435, USA
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