Bøger af Brendan Constantine

Poems of human interiors, resonating with the world at large, and with the wider human heart.

Reality has begun to show its age, have you noticed? Joe has.Calamity Joe is the pen name of the mysterious narrator in a new kind of poetry collection. Spending his days in a lab, talking to mice & microbes, he will soon be the last living member of his family. More and more life seems to hint at its syntax and Joe feels that he can just make out the page he inhabits. Drastic measures are called for, but for what?Poet Brendan Constantine hasnÆt crafted another \u201cnovel in verse,\u201d but a secret life revealed by poetry. Open it anywhere and be rewarded with poems that stand alone; read it from the beginning and discover the deeper context that ties every image together. As with his previous collections, Constantine employs countless approaches to poetry and no single style dominates. Looking through JoeÆs eyes we understand that life has no single story, that love is not a single feeling, and that consciousness may be an act of sheer will.

Letters To Guns represents a collection of poems that examine the para-physical natures of love and history, at times re-imagining both. As the poems progress, eight letters arrive written by non-human addressees (a nightgown, a grove of trees, a wooden spoon, others) at random points over the last 2,200 years. They are messages from home and pleas for understanding, warnings and promises of change. These in turn ignite other poems and themes which anticipate the next arrival. Taken together, the letters form an armature, a living skeleton fleshed by real and metaphenomenal experience. Throughout, a variety of styles appear and no single approach to poetry pervades. Singly, these poems should challenge and entertain. As a group they must transform and evolve our experience of sitting down with a book of poems.

"Brendan Constantine is a poet's poet. He sees life through a unique prism: at once lucid, elegant, and deeply humanistic." -- Julia Cameron, The Artist's WayHeartbreaking and hilarious poems reaffirming our youngest conclusions about the world. Known for his dreamy abstraction and the emotional ferocity on the page and on the stage, this is a birthday card from the phenomenal world to our wildest selves. No approach to writing (odes, codes, lectures, letters, tests and attendance sheets) is left unexploited as a means to poetry. This is his second collection.

"As with Constantine's previous titles, Dementia, My Darling can be enjoyed at random or in order. However, when taken in sequence, the poems construct a thesis on life as we remember it from moment to moment. What is your first memory of love? How soon will you forget answering that question?"--