Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Lisa Williams

I knew I had to feature Lisa Williams great poem "Blind Crevasse" from PoetryDaily here--it's a great look at how a poem can have a clear narrative line and a direct focus but still succeed. The end is excellent, as is the rest of it. It's like a more gothic, macabre version of Coleridge's "Kubla Khan".

I also liked her poem "Even Those", which is very odd in its dynamic but very good; also there's her "Road", which is more modern, but even I can see the appeal; there's more here and here.

This poem is a great example of how poetry can be intense, almost frightening and in the vein of eerie, like the quiet gaze of a predator who has not yet struck. Here's an excerpt:
[...]

                 widening from one crack
to a vaster chasm hundreds of meters
down, sapphire, then emerald damask
on vertical plunging walls, an endless
corridor of spiked sea glass—

You were cheek on crystal, in a terrible fallen
field, 
[...]


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