Vestiges

Eric Pankey

Description

“If only words were salt—soluble, savory, vital, electric,” Eric Pankey writes in “Variations on Hadrian’s Animula,” one of many virtuosic works in Vestiges: Notes, Responses, and Essays 1988 – 2018. In this diverse collection of lyrical prose, Pankey assays his personal-poetic history with passion, brilliance, and grace. He considers the works of many great poets—Dickinson, Stevens, Donne, Hopkins, Merwin, Justice, Levis, and Lorca, to name just a few—invoking them as teachers and guides. As much about language as the unutterable, sight as the unseen, Vestiges is a gorgeous, vital collection.
—Danielle Cadena Deulen, author of The Riots
Vestiges: Notes, Responses, and Essays 1988 – 2018 maps the mind of one of our best lyrical poets and thinkers. In these concise and nuanced works of prose, Eric Pankey meditates on such subjects as spiritual faith, the poetic image, memory, language, duende, and silence in poetry. Pankey is a quester, a searcher for truth, so it’s no surprise that in Vestiges he eschews nailed-down arguments and grand arrivals, prioritizing the question and the journey towards “the unsayable, the untouchable . . . the unknowable.” He reminds us that mystery and uncertainty are not weaknesses, but essential aspects of a life lived richly in both art and faith.
—Brian Barker, author of Vanishing Acts
Eric Pankey muses, “What is the divine? How is it made manifest? Where does it reside?” Revisiting the lyric impulse in a post-religious generation, Vestiges ponders the Romantic lyric subject in light of postmodern skepticism with allusions to Biblical contexts, illuminating the phenomenon of wonder in a material yet epistemologically unstable world: “In the lyric, language is both the ritual and the sacrifice at the moment’s altar.” Guided by an inner compass of memory and desire, psalms and lamentations, restoration and revival, we unearth in ourselves “not a spark, but a splinter of God in each of us, inflamed, working its way to the surface.” This book, a revitalizing act of faith and inspiration, is a marvelous gift to us.
—Karen An-hwei Lee, author of Phyla of Joy

Informations

• Publié par: Parlor Press, LLC
• Date de parution: 22 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781643171067
• Langue: English

Extrait

Eric Pankey

VESTIGES NOTES, RESPONSES, & ESSAYS 1988 – 2018

VESTIGES

Illuminations: A Series on American Poetics Seies Edio, Jon Thompson

Illuminaionsfocuses on he poeics and poeic pacices of he con- empoay momen in he USA. The seies is paiculaly keen o pomoe a se of eflecive woks ha include, bu go beyond, a- diional academic pose, so we ake Wale Benjamin’s ich, poeic essays published unde he ile ofIlluminaionsas an example of he kind of appoach we mos value. Collecively, he iles published in his seies aim o engage vaious audiences in a dialogue ha will eimagine he field of conempoay Ameican poeics. Fo moe abou he seies, please visi is websie a palopess.com/ illuminaions.

Books in the Series Vesiges: Noes, Responses, and Essays 1988–2018by Eic Pankey (2019) Sudden Edenby Donald Revell (2019) Pose Poey and he Ciyby Donna Soneciphe (2017)

VESTIGES

NOTES, RESPONSES, AND ESSAYS, 1988–2018

Eric Pankey

Parlor Press Anderson, South Carolina www.parlorpress.com

Palo Pess LLC, Andeson, Souh Caolina, USA © 2019 by Palo Pess All ighs eseved. Pined in he Unied Saes of Ameica on acid-ree pape.  S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9

Libay of Congess Caaloging-in-Publicaion Daa on File

Illuminaions Seies Edio: Jon Thompson

Cove a: “ Chalk Lines,” mixed media on Aches pape, Lisa Weiss. By kind and geneous pemission of he ais. hp://www.lisaweiss.ne Ineio and cove design: David Blakesley Copyedio: Jaed Jameson

Palo Pess, LLC is an independen publishe of scholaly and ade iles in pin and mulimedia fomas. This book is available in pape, cloh and eBook fomas rom Palo Pess on he Wold Wide Web a hp://www.palopess.com o hough online and bick-and-moa booksoes. Fo submission infomaion o o find ou abou Palo Pess publicaions, wie o Palo Pess, 3015 Backenbey Dive, Andeson, Souh Caolina, 29621, o email edio@palopess.com.

Contents

Acknowledgments vii 1 To Repair the Material of Experience 3 2 Silences and Forgeries 10 3 The Word17 4 A Forgotten Language 18 5 The Image 24 6 Variations on the Meditative Mode 28 7 Variations on Hadrian’sAnimula 30 8 An Amnesiac’s Meditation on Memory 31 9 The Work of Poetry or an Imaginary Plane of Glass Parallel to Sea Level 34 10 Vestiges 35 11 Psalm and Lament 37 12 Object Permanence 47 13 Four Short Essays 48 14 Ars Poetica 49 15 Duendeand Gravity 50 16 On the Occasion of the Release of the Senate Torture Report 54 17 The Form of a Walk 55

18 Ideal Proportions 60 19 vi Among Thorns: Drafts and Fragments 20 A Concordance of Silence 85 Works Cited 91 About the Author 95 CONTENTS

61

Acknowledgments

Much of he wok hee appeaed, oten in ealie dats, in he following online and pin publicaions:

Ameican Jounal of Poey Boulevad Chaahoochee Review The Chisian Cenuy The Chisian Science Monio Coloado Review Delma Fee Vese The Geogia Review How a Poem Happens Image Inedisciplinay Sudies The Iowa Review Manoa The Mid-Ameican Review The Paisan Review Pleiades Poey Daily The Souhen Review UCiy Review The Wie’s Chonicle

And in he following edied books:

Dak Hoses: Poes on Ovelooked Poems Evensong: Conempoay Ameican Poes on Spiiualiy Fis Loves: Poes Inoduce Essenial Poems ha Capivaed and Inspied Them

v ii

The Radian Lye: Essays on Lyic Poey Sepembe 11, 2001: Ameican Wies Respond Unil Eveyhing is Coninuous Again: Ameica n Poes on he Recen Wok of W. S. Mewin

I am gaeful o he geneous aenion of he edios of hese publicaions fo hei inviaion, insigh, encouagemen, and paience. The essay “The Fom of a Walk” was pesened as pa of a lecue seies celebaing poes’ bihdays a he Libay of Congess. Thanks o Rob Caspe fo he inviaion o dis- cuss Robe Fos. “The Wok of PoeyoAn Imaginay Plane of Glass Paallel o Sea Level,” was wien upon an inviaion rom Jon Thompson aFee Vese. Many woks hee had hei beginnings as panel pesen- aions a he annual Associaion of Wies and Wiing Po- gams’ confeence and I hank he many membes of he AWP saff, in paicula David Fenza, Alycia Tessean, and Chisian Teesi, who ove he yeas have made he confeence a lively and engaging gaheing.

v iii

VESTIGES

1