A Time Before Slaughter - 2nd Edition by Paul E Nelson (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

In this epic poem, Paul Nelson re-enacts the history of Auburn, Washington, originally known as the town of Slaughter. Written in the spirit of William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, and Michael McClure, A Time Before Slaughter explores the history of this Northwestern place from the myths of Native people to the xenophobia toward Japanese-Americans, from the urge to control to the hunger for liberation. Set against the backdrop of a towering dormant volcano (Mt. Rainier), the beauty of the verse pays homage to the beauty of the place. "Here's one more big hunk of the American shoulder," said poet Michael McClure. "As Olson carved his from the North East, Nelson takes his from the Pacific North West. It's beautiful time-space in new words."

"...If the original Slaughter reads like an archeological elegy for a past consciousness virally erased by settler 'Dominism, ' the extended book turns that on its head, and lends us new instruments with which to re-inhabit place... Poetry need not romantically lament a lost reality, or limply critique hegemonic systems... In these poems, Cascadia isn't a lost place, an Atlantis, but an island, a 'vast metaphor for concentration...' something potential always waiting to be spontaneously inhabited and made true."
--Matt Trease

Review Quotes

Paul Nelson's epic Slaughter explores the history, mythology and ecology of a place, a meeting-ground for various cultural interchanges, both good and bad, in the tradition of Charles Olson's Maximus Poems or W.C. Williams' Paterson, but uniquely his own. It is a pleasure to read--enlightening, serious, funny, and overflowing with life.
--Sam Hamill

Here's one more big hunk of the American shoulder, as Olson carved his from the North East, Nelson takes his from the Pacific North West. It's beautiful time-space in new words.
--Michael McClure

(A Time Before Slaughter is) A wonderful piece of work. That form is nothing so simple-minded as "extension" of content - but they're one thing inseparable. The "form" dances and changes continuously (like the river). It's a fierce poem - beautiful & heart-breaking & dark & uplifting - "Slaughter" is a wonderful journey.
--Diane diPrima

...If the original Slaughter reads like an archeological elegy for a past consciousness virally erased by settler "Dominism," the extended book turns that on its head, and lends us new instruments with which to re-inhabit place... Poetry need not romantically lament a lost reality, or limply critique hegemonic systems... In these poems, Cascadia isn't a lost place, an Atlantis, but an island, a "vast metaphor for concentration..." something potential always waiting to be spontaneously inhabited and made true.
--Matt Trease

Paul E Nelson founded SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB) in 1993 & the Cascadia Poetry Festival in 2012, wrote: American Sentences, A Time Before Slaughter and is Co-Editor of Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia, Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill, 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards and Make It True meets Medusario. His book of interviews taken from 16 of his 600+ interviews is: American Prophets (Interviews 1994-2012.) Hear interviews at his blog: www.PaulENelson.com. Winner of the 2015 Robin Blaser Award, he lives with his partner Bhakti and his daughter Ella Roque in the Cedar River watershed of the Cascadia bioregion and serves as Sam Hamill's literary executor.