A brief hint of light
squeezed in somehow
between a grand and endless
darkness.
There is beauty enough
in this.
from 'The Bones of Things'
I came across this New and Selected Poems collection by Taylor a couple of weeks ago while researching for an upcoming review/ interview on BOLD MONKEY for his soon to be released collection of short stories An Age of Monsters: http://www.epicrites.org/an-age-of-monsters.html
squeezed in somehow
between a grand and endless
darkness.
There is beauty enough
in this.
from 'The Bones of Things'
I came across this New and Selected Poems collection by Taylor a couple of weeks ago while researching for an upcoming review/ interview on BOLD MONKEY for his soon to be released collection of short stories An Age of Monsters: http://www.epicrites.org/an-age-of-monsters.html
The poems cover a period of ten or so years (1997-2007) and are
remarkably consistent in tone, subject matter and narrative voice. The poems
are clear, observational, and highly personal and characteristically explore the fine edge between
sadness and joy, beauty and horror, hope and despair.
Taylor is keenly aware of living ‘in the shadow of death’
and is repulsed by the ugliness he sees in the world. He attempts to
cling to the simple beauty he finds around him in his daily experiences- the sound of laughter, the
warmth of a body, a smile of a loved one, sunlight falling on girls walking down
the street, old men in bars on weekday afternoons.
But he knows that this reprieve can only be temporal before the
‘sad sort of peace’ he seeks will soon crumble and the lost and damaged around
him will be swept up in failure, disappointment, loneliness, and for some, in the despair of suicide. Underlying everything we do for Taylor, like Larkin, is the ‘unmentionable’ fear and horror and the inadequacy of words to explain the raw state of disintegration we will all one day face.
It is a sad, ugly world but as Taylor states defiantly in
his opening poem ‘In Spite of Them’: ‘The sane and the powerful/ have had their
way in the world/…We are beautiful, still, in spite of them.’
Find out more information about this excellent book below.
The Centennial press link includes a sample of poems and a 2007 interview with William Taylor Jr : http://www.centennialpress.com/words.html
Postscript 25 Nov 2011: I accidentally ordered two copies but only received one. I sent off a request to either refund me or send me an additional copy but after two weeks I haven't heard a whisper. This is the first time I ever have had a problem in dealing with the small press in ten years! I'll let you know of further developments.
Postscript 25 Nov 2011: I accidentally ordered two copies but only received one. I sent off a request to either refund me or send me an additional copy but after two weeks I haven't heard a whisper. This is the first time I ever have had a problem in dealing with the small press in ten years! I'll let you know of further developments.
