Cove - by James Brasfield (Paperback)

About the Book

"Cove, the third collection by James Brasfield, offers poetry made of small gestures, breath-length phrases, and compact units of lines. These poems gain resonance in their pursuit of discovering moments and capturing the fleeting nature of experience, thought, and memory, as life speeds into and through the future. Drawing on classical sources, including the eighth-century Tang dynasty poet and painter Wang Wei and the fifteenth-century Italian painter Piero della Francesca, Brasfield's poetry translates what he sees, whether he is reflecting on travels and specific scenes or lingering over a work of art. With these precise, meditative poems, Brasfield seeks to counter the many forms that violence takes by finding reprieve through engagement, with a determined focus to go deep enough, without distraction, into the moment, to make a recognizable shelter to be trusted. As evoked in the long title poem, Cove offers a vision of hope for how we might find light and closeness lurking behind the apparent bleakness of a present moment"--

Book Synopsis

In Cove, the compulsive intensity with which James Brasfield seeks to capture a fleeting moment's imagery, "to choose a song sown / for the moment," imbues his poems with a sense of urgency and movement. By exploring the translation of the sensory world into art, Brasfield faces the passage of time and the transitory nature of experience, thought, and memory. The poems find "angles of vision" to rescue a present instant in its essential fluidity, to go deep enough, without distraction, into the moment and reveal touchstones of being. Throughout Cove, Brasfield embraces the enduring effort to create an experience of language that is rich, lasting, and true, as life speeds into and through the future.

Review Quotes

"I love a book that begins with a 'cortege of clouds' and ends with 'lapis' it's rich with ceremonial movement and painterly light."--Bruce Smith

"To the mystery of 'what was once never here, ' James Brasfield brings subtle lyricism and heartbreaking narrative. In still moments--when detail animates landscape and weather, bird and flower--the poet welds geography and history into a dynamic present. Close observation powers 'Cove, ' the magnificent title poem. This 'song for our species' is a sublime achievement."--Robin Becker

About the Author

James Brasfield is the author of two previous books of poems, Ledger of Crossroads and Infinite Altars, and cotranslator of The Selected Poems of Oleh Lysheha, which won the 2000 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. He has twice been a Senior Fulbright Fellow to Ukraine and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.