World Literature Today

on,fascinated yethorrified bywhat is remembered in feeling, but not quitein unchanging detail.Hereis partofa sentence from one ofthe volume'sprosepoems:"... metoo withmycrystal ballthemetal bowl inthewhiteliving room, bowlperfectforwashingcaked -upbones, sediment falling downoveritsstars ..." Relentlessly, image builds upon image - a short quotation hardlyreproduces itseffect - until one is overwhelmed by what is abouttohappenandwhatalready hashappened. The lyric emotionof these poems builds, seemingly,from out of nowhere, a dream-haunted speech ofapprehended butnotquite delineated memory. Theiraimand theirachievement, I think, are to provoke anxiety notforthesakeof themastery ofverseoveritsreadersandlisteners , butfor thesakeof vision.Readingand hearingthese poemsallow thosewho encounter themto apprehend thequalityof their ownexperience with more care, morediscernment, and,ifI maysay so, greater "anticipation" forwhat experience brings altogether. Rather thanportraying theworld,oreven the poet's wisdom,the poems of Napoleon Swings distill through languageandimageexperience itself. RonaldSchleifer University ofOklahoma Gerard Hanberry. At Grattan Road. Cliffsof Moher, County Clare, Ireland. Salmon (Dufour,distr.).2010 (© 2009). 120 pages. €12/$21.95. isbn 978-1907056 -06-2 Whenwe tryto summarize Gerard Hanbeny's work, wereturn tofundamental questions aboutthenature of lyric: Shoulditbe a meditation overheard , or a melody sungin public? Should it be unifiedby form, or bytheme? On thepage,Hanbeny's poemsareshapedoutofshort, neat stanzas.The absenceofdiscernible rhythm orrhyme, though, makesus wonderabouttheir melodicappeal offthepage: perhapssomepoems are lyrics in thetruesenseof the wordandothers, stories. Hanbeny's gift is narrative anddramatic. "The TasteofApples"laysouttherudiments ofa gripping story oflonelinessand despairinfour brief stanzas ("As a childhe was jealousof thetrees . . .");"ByKingston Bridge" concludes witha haunting imageof a mysteriously traumatized couple finding theirway homeward; and the ambitious"Hosting"attempts to view theIraq War through the lensofPersian KingXerxes's imperialwaragainst Greece, whilebeing situated inthemodest Shannon airport ,watching "mycountry's eyes averted" from theactuality ofsuch events.Such poems fascinate and are not ungraceful sonically, but their effect is nanative, notlyrical. We see a sketch ofan untoldstory I RxE/V /VE VA?LVS ^^^H I /AAKMttlA KMMRMKM ^^^H I lyingbehindthe poem,and this holdsour interest and piques our curiosity. Hanberry's bestpoemspresent variouselements within a unifying narrative framework, ring true even when inducting us intoa bizarre reality, and leavea strong impressionafter they havebeenread.His evocative gift shines clearinpoems such as "Samhain," in whichthe poet'sfocus careens from oneobject to another, creating an effect that is cinematic rather thanmeditative orevendescriptive. Poemslikethis offer a collection of eventsthatis notquitecollocation: ourgazeshifts too rapidlyto createa sequence. Theysucceedwhenwe alloweach imageor narrative nuggetto drop intoour mindsuntiltheyforma sum total,a multifaceted picture teeming withcolorandenergy. The everyday meetsthefantastical, and theabstract airofthephilosophical and lofty is brought downtoearth through thecomical and anecdotal. At Grattati Roadimpresses by its range ofmoods, settings, andforms, yetwhatremains mostvividareits embryonic stories. MagdalenaKay University ofVictoria, B.C. Lance Henson. I testi del lupo /The WolfTexts. MartellaLorusso, ed. & tr. Rome. Nottetempo. 2009. 81 pages. €7.ISBN 978-88-7452-203-3 . The Missing Bead: Dog Soldier Poems Writtenin Exile /La perlina mancante: Poesie di un dog soldier scritte in esilio. MartellaLorusso, ed. & tr.Milan. Arcipelago. 2009. 127 pages. €10. isbn 978-88-7695-403-0 EachofLanceHenson'sbookshas a loose,thematic unity.The wolf seems a metaphorfor the lone, lostpoet livingon thethreatened remnants ofthenatural world.The missing beadseemstorepresent the dimlyremembered wisdomof the Cheyenne people. Bothbooks are smallin design, fitting comfortably inthereader's hands. Bornin Washington, D.C., in 1944, Henson wasbrought upbyBob and BerthaCook,Southern Cheyennes ,in Calumet, Oklahoma.His first bookofpoetry was published in 1972;others soonfollowed. Henson 'swork hasbeenpublished inthe majoranthologies ofNativepoetry. His minimalist style is evocative of Cheyenne song.Hensonhas traveled throughout theUnitedStates, and in Mexico,Southeast Asia,the Middle East,and Europereading andwriting hispoetry. Currently, he liveswith hiswife, Silvana, inPonticella ,Italy, a suburb ofBologna. Thereare allusionsto eighthcentury Chinesepoet Tu Fu, fifteenth -century Japanese poetBasho, Americanpoets Ezra Pound and Charles Bukowski, and Native American poets Joy HarjoandSimon Ortizinthesepoems.Thepoemsin bothbooksreflect a broken world. TheWolf Texts, which islargely a collageofdreams , isheavily annotated. Whilepoems like "sitting outside in earlymorning fortu fu" presentsurprising juxtapositions oflife anddeath(as inthelines"a breeze settles likebeautiful /haunted ash/ oneverything"), thebook'scumbersomeendnotes sometimes annoy the reader with inaccurate orextraneous details. Henson's verse collages are madeofthe"memoried" and contemporary imagesof his life.For example, hehears"thebellsatmidnight "in "ancestrals" (TheMissing Bead)and remembers Bertha Cook, hisgrandmother: "isearch for you/ sitting bythekerosene lampofforty yearsnow / i havenotlostyou / i have lostmyself." The memories ofhisgrandparents, hisuncles, his mother tell him what it is to be Cheyenne - anassurance ofidentity...