Threnody - by Juliet Patterson (Paperback)

About the Book

An urgent and scintillating second collection by poet and activist Juliet Patterson

Book Synopsis

Part lamentation, part ode, Threnody (the word originates from the Greek, threnos, "wailing" and oide "ode."), examines the beauty and violence of our present ecological moment with a lyric and meditative eye. Concerned with the precise relationship of components in the world these poems exist in the overlap between imagination and fact, truth and history, territory and map, the living and the dead. "Juliet Patterson's poems are entirely themselves; they use time and the eye and tongue--all the body, as thought and insight, inside and outside history." - Jean Valentine

Review Quotes

"Part lamentation, part ode, this urgent and scintillating second collection by poet and activist Patterson examines the beauty and violence of our present ecological moment with a lyric and meditative eye."--Publishers Weekly

"Comprised of free verse poetry that is part lamentation and part ode, Threnody is an inherently fascinating and engaging read that showcases Juliet Patterson's genuine flair for linguistic image making and truly memorable verse in a compendium that is very highly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library Contemporary Poetry collections. 'Nounal': Purblind wall-space, white / white, tree-studded / tract in the windowed / air. Ray of light point, the dark marsh / shows its way through / the ragged wood. // The half-opened door, / you, with all your otherness, Hee, the faint sounds / of shade, the tumbled sheen / of home. A wave, a word, / adrift."--Midwest Book Review Small Press Bookwatch

"Quiet, patient, yet often with a swarming force, these poems worry the fraught intersection between humanity and nature, where, as we quickly see, threat abides."--Ryo Yamaguchi, New Pages

About the Author

JULIET PATTERSON is the author of The Truant Lover, winner of the Nightboat Books Poetry Prize, and the chapbooks Epilogue and Dirge. As a community activist and artist, Patterson has worked on a number of collaborative projects related to place-making and the environment. She lives in Minneapolis with her partner and son.