Eratosphere Forums - Metrical Poetry, Free Verse, Fiction, Art, Critique, Discussions Able Muse - a review of poetry, prose and art

Forum Left Top

Notices

Reply
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Unread 07-23-2002, 04:46 PM
robert mezey robert mezey is offline
Master of Memory
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Claremont CA USA
Posts: 570
Post



Finally, my COLLECTED POEMS got a review, the
first (except for a couple of brief newspaper
notices)---current issue of the National Review
(not my favorite mag, but no worse on the right
than Nation is on the left, & probably better),
by someone whose name I forget. Not a particularly
accurate or well-done review, but favorable. I
have been rescued briefly from oblivion.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Unread 07-23-2002, 05:28 PM
Tim Murphy Tim Murphy is offline
Lariat Emeritus
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Fargo ND, USA
Posts: 13,816
Post

Anyone who has not acquired a copy of the Collected Works of our most senior member is nuts. Listen up, you free and formal versers, this guy wrote the BOOK.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Unread 07-28-2002, 03:11 PM
Joe Aimone Joe Aimone is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 339
Post

Let me second Tim's endorsement. From the poems of <u>The Lovemaker</u> to "Tea Dance at the Nautilus Hotel (1925)," Bob has almost never written a poem not worth deep study and even outright reverence. (He might disagree, perhaps, but I hope not, because he would be wrong on that one point.)

And I can also say that he is one of the few teachers, of poetry or anything else, that one inevitably learns something important from, regardless of one's state of mind or receptivity. About this, I can speak first hand, having been one of his students, and more receptive than I knew, though probably not the best student. (He first taught me when I was an undergraduate longer ago than either of us probably want to recall.)

Moreover, Bob is the best person in the world to learn to read poetry aloud from. If you have never heard him read his work, or the work of other poets he loves, your life as an appreciator of the spoken word is incomplete. It's been a bit over twenty years since I learned that. And the effect is universal, as more recent experience proves: I watched a room of over a hundred people, stacked knee to knee and covering the floor, in a reading to commemorate Wallace Stevens, hushed to pindrop silence by his reading (the first public one, I think) of "The Noble Rider and the Sound of Words: A Cento." Robert Hass was also on the program, and may have drawn the crowd, but people hubbubed and chitchatted while Hass mangled unprepared minds and muddled his way through a silly lecture that essentially identified Stevens as only a precursor to Hass. But Bob Mezey hypnotized the buggers into that sane and serious space he keeps alive in the world, along with his wicked sense of humor, delivering a tribute to Stevens that was, if anything, better than most of Stevens. (Certainly Bob is better reader than Stevens ever was: check the recordings of Stevens, then listen to Bob.)

Reply With Quote
  #4  
Unread 07-29-2002, 03:29 AM
Kevin Andrew Murphy Kevin Andrew Murphy is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: San Jose, California, USA
Posts: 3,257
Post

Amazon, as usual, is badly organized (I had to search fifteen listings before I found it) but there is a listing, with a couple more reviews (one posted twice):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...641662-1977444

But both of these reviews were also positive.

If Tim or anyone else who's read a copy wanted to add reviews....

I'm off to read more of the excerpts.

Kevin
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Unread 08-09-2002, 05:51 PM
Rhina P. Espaillat Rhina P. Espaillat is offline
Honorary Poet Lariat
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,008
Post

Alas, I've never heard Bob Mezey read, and had the pleasure of his good company only once and briefly. But I do have the enduring and profound pleasure of his Collected, which strikes me as the most varied poetry collection on my shelves. It's not one "voice," but a much more natural expression: all the many voices that one keen intelligence is capable of, speaking in every imaginable mood and tone about the world--not inside, but outside, where things happen. Wonderful book, wonderful mind.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Unread 08-10-2002, 10:53 AM
Terese Coe Terese Coe is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 7,489
Post

Bob

Belated congratulations on your review and the book itself!

I wish I could get it without ordering it on the net, because packages are often stolen here. Would the book fit in a standard mailbox? Might it be in any shops?

Terese


Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump



Forum Right Top
Forum Left Bottom Forum Right Bottom
 
Right Left
Member Login
Forgot password?
Forum LeftForum Right


Forum Statistics:
Forum Members: 8,399
Total Threads: 21,839
Total Posts: 270,786
There are 2822 users
currently browsing forums.
Forum LeftForum Right


Forum Sponsor:
Donate & Support Able Muse / Eratosphere
Forum LeftForum Right
Right Right
Right Bottom Left Right Bottom Right

Hosted by ApplauZ Online