Richard, I think Alan's is an illuminating essay about Greg Williamson, and I can think of no better model for the younger poets on the Sphere to follow. I would like to see longer essays like Alan's appear here, but I shall append my short appreciation of Errors in the Script, which I posted on Amazon.com. And Richard, you've discussed this book in a round-up review for the Seattle Times. Please share your thoughts with us.
A Scrivener in the Scriptorium, May 27, 2001
Reviewer: Tim Murphy from Fargo, ND
Williamson may well be the most prodigiously gifted young poet to come along since Wilbur, Hecht, and Justice appeared around 1950. All these masters have eloquently praised his work; and if we fifty-somethings haven't said much, maybe we're too flumoxed by how damn good he is. Errors in the Script is a substantially better book than The Silent Partner, which was superb. The first third is comprised of big, solid poems which are advances on his earlier triumphs. My two favorites are Origami and Kites at the Washington Monument.
The second third is a tour de force, twenty-six Double Exposures. Each poem is three poems, two in heroic couplets, and the third in quatrains. The left and right-hand poems interleave like fingers in hands folded in prayer to form the third, and the third is far greater than the sum of the parts. The same is true of the entire work, an extended meditation on life, on consciousness and perception.
The final section of the book is perhaps a little too hip, too flip, for my codgerly taste, though mall-crawlers half my age may prize it above the rest. Anyone seriously interested in the present and future of poetry owes it to her or himself to acquire this terrific collection.
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