Monday, April 21, 2008

Patrick Pritchett: Antiphonal

In the interests of shameless self-promotion, & cuz I just can't quit rereading the thing & grinning, once again here's the link to yesterday's Michael Dirda Washington Post review of The Poem of a Life. Any reason your local library – public, academic, etc. – hasn't ordered this yet?
***
Antiphonal, Patrick Pritchett (Pressed Wafer chapbook, 2008)

[11/100]

An odd rush almost of nostalgia reading this nicely-produced, cleanly laid-out, & precisely but passionately written chapbook – a sense of the idioms & concerns of the Apex of the M crowd back in those "how the hell do we get out from under the shadow of the Language Poets?" days, that heady mixture of post-Black Mountain, post-Objectivist poetics, Jabès- & Derrida-inflected nrratives of loss & deferral, & Levinasian (or Samperian) reachings towards the numinous, the spiritual. My inner Zizek (or Hume) snorts: my inner Robert Duncan, enthralled by the cumulative music especially of the latter poems of Antiphonal, is delighted, just delighted, & moved.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have an inner Zizek? I recommend Peptobismol.

Vance Maverick said...

I did wonder why my local libraries didn't have it. So I bought a copy, new -- hope that's OK. (Green Apple in SF had it on the shelf.)

I'm writing something on Z, referencing your biography, for a history blog. Are there decent, permissible electronic versions out there of any of the photos? I'd love to be able to use this one....

Mark Scroggins said...

Hi Vance -- I don't know nuthin' 'bout no internet picture permissions; sfarz I know that particular photo was pulled directly off the cover of my LZ & the Poetry of Knowledge book. You might be able to find a slightly cleaner version of it with a bit more surfing around...

Thanks for buying the book: enjoy! But please ask your local libraries to purchase copies, as well.