Eratosphere - Moseley and Lantry at Poets House, NY, NY

Review of Annabelle Moseley and W.F. Lantry’s Reading at the Poets House
New York, NY
7pm-8:30pm, June the 15th 2012

Annabelle Moseley: “The Clock of the Long Now,” David Robert Books.

Ms. Moseley read representative selections from the four sections of her first full-length book, “The Clock of the Long Now." Whether recreating momentous past events from personal and family history, from local Long Island History and the Bible, or from the morning twilight of legend and myth, she exhibited virtuosity in her handling of the sonnet; each one was a satisfying whole, and each one spoke to the others around it and contributed the book as a whole. I was also impressed with her handling of the “programmatic” introductory poem: in a series dedicated to the poet Jupiter Hammon, the first sonnet, marked at the left margin with an effortlessly achieved acrostic, lays out the themes of the poems to come without sounding at all like a table of contents or scholarly introduction—the poem, in fact, stands very well on its own. I recommend her book not only generally because of its mastery and intensity, but also as a text-book that teaches manifold ways of sustaining thematic focus throughout a collection of poems.

W.F. Lantry: “The Structure of Desire,” Little Red Tree Publishing.

Bill Lantry, the ensorcelled seer from San Diego, read from his ravishing full-length collection, “The Structure of Desire.” His is a poetry of “transport,” in which everyday moments expand into mystic significance at the prompting of beauty in the form of a person, a dance or music. He reads as he writes, with each word thick with import, as if his poems were sacred texts. “Spiritual” poetry has been much discussed of late. If it does come back into vogue, I hope that its practitioners will follow Mr. Lantry’s (and Mr. Stevens’) example by grounding their ecstasies in realia. Mr. Lantry’s recurring images—the dance, the mirror, sinuous drapery—never emerge from some vague poetic subconscious but from his visions of the world around him. As a poet of rapture, Mr. Lantry writes poetry dear to my heart. I recommend this book to all who enjoy mind-expanding mystical poetry and anyone who wants to be reminded what the selfless, helpless sort of love feels like.