Pojdimo vezat kosti by Cvetka Lipuš

Yet amidthefragments and ruins ofwarfare, Henson'sdynamic word visions makeus moreawareofthe astonishing beautythatremains in ourworld. NormaC. Wilson University ofSouthDakota Cvetka Lipus. Pojdimo vezat kosti. Ljubljana, Slovenia. Mladinska. 2010. 109 pages. €19.95. isbn978-961-011068 -2 In hersixth andmostrecent collection ofpoems, Cvetka Lipusdelivers a rich,denseset of highlyevocativetexts , demonstrating thatshe has takenherpoetryto new levels ofspirited contestation as well as concreteness, consistency, and sheer verbal andlexical beauty. This mature work ofgreat self-confidence challenges thereaderin twoways. First is thefamiliar unfamiliarity of Lipus'sdiction, theuniquely innovativeand powerful, yetquietand accurate, use of languagewe also saw inherearlier works(see WLT, May 2009,69). Second,on a new front altogether, we nowsee Lipus poking andprodding atthepowersthat -be, at theestablished orderof things, from thephysiology ofindividualhumans tomediatothesolar system itself, evenas sheis forced to come to termsover and over with thefrailty andmessiness ofour essenceas bundlesofbones.Much ofthetension inthesepagescomes from thethreatened status ofcoherence ,acceptance, andevenphysical integrity (withmanymentions of bones, blood,sinew, andnerves) in thefaceofan implacable universal entropy. The volumecontainstwentythreepoems ,a numberof which areactually cycles; amongtheseare theeponymous "Letus gobindthe bones/'Lipus continuesto write in freeverse,sometimes withthe breathless and unexpected phrasingofa pulsating balladbyAlanis Morissette and at other timeswith greaterconsciousness of syllables and punctuation; always,though, the languageis freshand exacting and the imagesnuancedbut straightforward. "Love Stricken" uses simpleimages - a cat,a flower ,a fist - tosaysomething refined aboutamour; therigorous "Twelve Views of theMoon" surprises us withthepoetcajoling themoonand eventaking ittotask:"Do youeven know/ ... at whattimetheseas rushtoshore, howwe move/ our thighs inorder tofill thehouseswith ourgrowth?" Ideas and structure aside, a CvetkaLipuspoemis also,as ever, a thing ofremarkable linguistic elegance , aswhenshewrites in"Rojstni dan"(Birthday): "Youkneadtheday / intowrinkled clothes / howwell theaccumulated hourssuityou / brittle feet / tock-tock-tock / onthe cartilage oftheyears."I can think ofno Central Europeanpoetmore likelyto enchant NorthAmerican readers and,therefore, moredeserving of a book-length collection of English translations. John K. Cox North DakotaStateUniversity Paul Muldoon. Maggot. New York.Farrar ,Straus & Giroux.2010. 134 pages. $24. isbn 978-0-374-20032-9 It was Helen Vendlerwho compared Paul Muldoon's poems to doughnuts, in thattheyhaveholes wherefeelings shouldbe. Whether a poemoughttoincludefeelings is ofcoursedebatable, butwhat'snot isthat theskill andstamina required to graspone of Muldoon'srecent ^^^^^^J

Aesthetics · Art · Elegance · Linguistics and language evolution