Two New Reviews at New Pages
Big Bright Sun
Poetry by Nate Pritts
BlazeVOX [books], October 2010
ISBN-10: 1609640209
ISBN-13: 978-1-609-64020-0
Paperback: 90pp; $16.00
Review by Dan Magers
When reading the poetry of Nate Pritts, one gets the sense that his drive to write poetry originated from the ecstatic strain of the Beat Generation, namely through the poetry of Philip Whalen and the Ginsberg of “Supermarket in California,” as opposed to the more apocalyptic strain personified by Burroughs and Ginsberg’s “Howl.” This is the strain that has it that all of nature and even some man-made objects are imbued with a holy light and the possibility of transcendence. This is a source of yearning and salvation for Pritts, as he writes in the first poem of his fourth book, Big Bright Sun, “There are literally / hundreds of roses I could pick today // or leave for tomorrow & the evening / of a different year, the purple evening.” In the book, this is especially true of the sun:
What could be wrong? There is right now a big yellow orb
hanging overhead &, no, it won’t fall &, yes,
it is beautiful; everything around you is beautiful. You
is beautiful. You is stunning, shocking the whole world
blind.
Read more here
http://www.newpages.com/bookreviews/2011-08-02/#Big-Bright-Sun-by-Nate-Pritts
Field Work
Notes, Songs, Poems 1997-2010
Poetry by David Hadbawnik
BlazeVOX [books], April 2011
ISBN-10: 1609640101
ISBN-13: 978-1-60964-010-1
Paperback: 138pp; $16.00
Review by Patrick James Dunagan
From the beginning, Hadbawnik's book offers itself as a tale of self-discovery: the precocious journey of a young poet brimming with literary-mindedness working towards further developing into a mature, aware-minded, somewhat older poet dutifully reporting back as his development continues. Unfortunately, rather than further sharpening and developing insights on writing or living, the work loses focus as it progresses and is worse off for it.
Hadbawnik opens with the possibility that by diving into himself via writing, he’ll thereby reveal something beyond his own sense of himself, allowing his person to become a vehicular channel for the song of words:
July 8 [1997]
As soon as I stepped outside the music started inside me, as though it had been waiting for me all along
Read more:
http://www.newpages.com/bookreviews/2011-08-02/#Field-Work-by-David-Habawnik
Nate Pritt's Big Bright Sun, as one of the top 30 poetry books of 2010
Coldfront listed one of BlazeVOX [books] author's books, Nate Pritt's Big Bright Sun, as one of the top 30 poetry books of 2010. It came in at #28. Congratulations to Nate!
http://coldfrontmag.com/news/top-30-poetry-books-of-2010-3
Photos on flickr
