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“Stephen Bluestone’s poems do miraculous
things, by force of language directed through his fierce
peculiar rhythm; best, they preserve what they value. Because
our civilization loves speed, change, loss, and forgetfulness, a
poet’s obligation is also a poet’s opportunity–to hold and keep,
to make a stillness despite noise–to praise, to celebrate, and
to enact endurance. In Stephen Bluestone’s old opera singers, in
his
‘afternoon/on its way into history,’
and in his recovered
‘Circumstance of the Porch,’
he provides what the age never
demands but deeply requires.”
–Donald Hall
“‘So forgive me–you will–but make it new, original,
your own,/ no matter how strange or beautiful, or far from home,’
advised Robert Hayden in a poem of Stephen Bluestone’s. And he
did. Poem after poem [in
The Flagrant Dead] is
strange–and original and beautiful–whether translations or dramatic
speeches, whether of love or machinery, or old technologies, or
outrageous lists, whether influenced by Robert Browning or Hart Crane.
We have, in our language, poems of passion and poems of the mind, but
they are not too often combined. Bluestone has found a way to combine
them. He is a steady student of our culture, as he is of our history. He
misses nothing.”
–Gerald Stern
“Stephen Bluestone’s new book,
The Flagrant Dead, has a startling
and I think incontrovertible idea: the dead are with us, whether it be
the pattern of the carpet in a mosque or
‘the look in the eye of a young
girl listening.’ Whatever has happened must still be happening–the
making of a great automobile, the Maserati, and the ingenuity of the
‘owner-manager’ of the Rose Theater in March 1598, who brought dead
scenes to life. In Bluestone’s poetry the plays of Ben Jonson and the
escapades of Harpo Marx go on forever.
The Flagrant Dead
is a delightful and astonishing book.”
–Louis Simpson
ANNOUNCEMENTS Upcoming appearances include a feature
reading at
Callanwolde Arts Center
in Atlanta on Wednesday, November 12, at 8
pm. For directions and further info, please click on the link. Another
appearance will take place the next day, November 13, at the
Marcus
Jewish Community Center of Atlanta Book Festival, at 11 am. See link for
further info. Go to Book Festival Schedule page.Happy to report that
The Laughing Monkeys of Gravity has been reprinted by Mercer
University Press. Also,
The Flagrant Dead, a new volume, was released by Mercer
University Press in March 2007. To order these books
please click on the links on this page.
Here's a link (see below) to an album of the AWP Tribute to Louis
Simpson that took place on Saturday, February 2, 2008. Fellow panelists included Peter Stitt,
Peter Makuck, Mark Jarman, and Michael Waters. Louis Simpson was
present and read his poetry.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sebluestone
At the Georgia Writers Association annual meeting, on June 7, 2008, I
was pleased to be this year’s recipient of the Taran Memorial Prize for
The Flagrant Dead. And this past summer, at the Charles Street
Synagogue in NYC, I read my new version of “Adon Olam” with Andy Statman
performing on clarinet. I look forward to future performances with
Statman.
Many
thanks to Keith Bluestone, Jerome Gratigny, and Robert Allen for their work in
designing and maintaining this Web site.
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