A BOOK OF PROPHECIES
Author: Wieners, John
Editor: Carr, Michael
2007
0-9779975-4-5
fifteen dollars
Michael Carr is the editor of A BOOK OF PROPHECIES, a notebook by John Wieners written in 1971, which was found in a collection at Kent State University; it opens with a piece titled ’2007′. Introduction by James Dunn.
“I think even those of us who love John Wieners’ poetry have been taken aback, in fact bowled over by the greatness of his hitherto unknown BOOK OF PROPHECIES, written in the 1969-1970 period right after NERVES and preceding BEHIND THE STATE CAPITOL OR CINCINNATTI PIKE . . . halfway through the book you can trace the mark, so obvious it feels like an actual physical thing, perhaps a torso in marble missing an arm or two, where Wieners must have decided that the lyric style of NERVES, ASYLUM POEMS, etc., just wasn’t going to cut it for him any more and it was time to move onto the ‘derangements’ of his later style, the accent on language’s materiality, the ‘cut up’ effects, the slide into a slippery first person multiplicity. It’s fascinating just from a biographical point of view, and in effect what you get is a whole mini-anthology of two very different strains in Wieners’ writing, and this BOOK OF PROPHECIES provides wonderful example of both styles.”
Kevin Killian
Reviews:
Kevin Killian at Amazon
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