In the Builded Place

by Michael Heller

Overview

"There is a classical simplicity to its spare syllables.... Mr. Heller's book is intent on inquiry, full of rumination ... filled with illumination."—Carol Muske, New York Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780918273581
Publisher:	Coffee House Press
Publication date:	11/01/1989
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.30(d)

Editorial Reviews

Heller's ( Knowledge ) accomplished collection reveals a central preoccupation: desire for emotional experience cannot outweigh our fears of it. The formal and thematic tension here creates a nearly elegiac tone, a distilled recognition of the sacrifices life requires us to make: ``We, in our own way, of course, are dying, / But there are many ways to die, / To come back, to survive.'' Abstract ideas are juxtaposed with imagery of earth and sea, and nature becomes a symbol of human drama--passionate, unbridled. This signature struggle between thought and instinct crystallizes when Heller observes the incoming tide: ``Yet what if there is more of that wave in man / Than speech.'' And though pure feeling may not surface fully or frequently enough to infuse the poems with vitality, his ambivalence achieves undeniable poignancy. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Unlike most modern poets, Heller brings to his work a sense of history, classical literature, and science. He employs a variety of forms: lyric, elegy, collage, prose poem. There is a strong emotive force behind each--e.g., ``The lungs burn and the stars burn.'' Images are knife-sharp; Heller tags the sky ``a guillotine of blue.'' But it's in the lexicon of science that he feels most at home; his poems abound with such words as binary , bifurcate , quantumed , molecular . Although an occasional poem falters, this collection is ``A braille of flesh/ from which a ghost is sown.'' Recommended for collections of contemporary poetry.-- Doris Lynch, Oakland P.L., Cal.

Library Journal