Invention of the Wilderness - by Bruce Bond (Paperback)

About the Book

"In Invention of the Wilderness, Bruce Bond explores the wild as a spiritual, psychological, and ecological realm-a territory that, depending on our tolerances and affections, calls out for order, exploitation, expansion, or preservation. Wilderness thus figures as emblem and example of the universe out of which our consciousness and cities have arisen. As such, it is the prima materia of the world as we encounter it, both individually and culturally. Although to talk of "inventing" the wild seems paradoxical, the book seeks to reclaim the etymological root of "invention" as a "venturing in." To invent a wilderness is to go inward, to deepen our experience of the unfettered and unknown, to empower it with a sense of debt and awe, responsibility and wonder, speech and attention to what must go unspoken. At times meditative and melancholic, though also vibrant and hopeful, Invention of the Wilderness proposes an embodied and reflective way of being in the world. Bond shows that, in times of gratitude or loss, to enter a wild that in turn enters us is to affirm our own imaginative life as no mere mirror of nature, but a force of it-a participation in the strange and intimate powers that touch every corner of our lives"--

Book Synopsis

In Invention of the Wilderness, Bruce Bond explores the wilderness as a spiritual, psychological, and ecological realm--a territory that, depending on our tolerances and affections, calls out for order, exploitation, expansion, or preservation. Although to talk of "inventing" the wilderness seems paradoxical, the book seeks to reclaim the etymological root of "invention" as a "venturing in." To invent a wilderness is to go inward by way of attentive engagement in the natural world, to affirm and liberate imaginative expression as no mere mirror of nature, but a force of it. At times meditative and melancholic, though also vibrant and full of life, Invention of the Wilderness proposes an embodied and reflective way of being in the world.

Review Quotes

"Bond's prescient and searing book speaks to the fact that the earth is in deep peril, even as the poems themselves offer a kind of healing."--Diane Raptosh

"Bruce Bond is a poet whose work I have read and loved for many years. There is music in Bond's poems that is like no one else's. It is both beautifully traditional and yet innovative, because it responds to the metaphysics of his moment, to the heart of our day."--Ilya Kaminsky

About the Author

Bruce Bond is the author of thirty books including, most recently, Behemoth, The Calling, and Patmos. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including seven editions of Best American Poetry. He is the Regents Emeritus Professor of English at the University of North Texas.