Dreamless and Possible Poems New and Selected Synopsis
This generous volume of new and selected poems by Christopher Howell encompasses three decades of his distinguished work, drawing upon all of his previous books. Dreamless and Possible chronicles his wide range of interests, expressed by blending elements of the surreal with biography, imagist economy with a storyteller's informality. It also shows the development of his signature style, reflected, as poet Albert Goldbarth has written, in poems connected by deep thought worn lightly, and by large vision writ in small details. These are poems of palpable force. Howell thinks out loud as he works his way through what charms, challenges, and defines the human project. He questions, tests images and associations, and leaps, trusting himself, into midair. In consequence, the cerebral energy propels his poems beyond statement and into startlingly evocative modes, grappling with and sifting profound matters of memory, imagination, and grief, tempered always by joy.
Dreamless and Possible Poems New and Selected Press Reviews
Over the last three decades, Howell's poetry has deepened yet lost none of its quicksilver movement where the quotidian and eternal play tag. * City Living * There are stable frames of reference in his poems, but he's good for a substantial surprise almost every time....Those who seek Howell's book out will find a poet who over time has grown more and more comfortable with surprising word choices, comparisons, and lists. He's so sure the force of his narratives will carry the reader through to the end, so sure the feelings that come through in his poems are real and undeniable, he can risk what looks at first like irrelevance.... * Constant Critic * . . . gleans the Spokane resident's best work from eight books and his haunting new work. -- Mike Dillon * City Living *Book Information
| ISBN: | 9780295992877 |
| Publication date: | 7th March 2013 |
| Author: | Christopher Howell |
| Publisher: | University of Washington Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 224 pages |
| Categories: | Poetry by individual poets, |
About Christopher Howell
Christopher Howell is professor of English and creative writing at Eastern Washington University.
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