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Helping the Dreamer
Poems
by Anne Waldman "A
syncopated web that includes the personal within the metaphysical and the environmental,
tying the individual’s story to the story of the survival of the planet. . . .
She can also be funny, brave, and care very deeply about all our futures."
- Village Voice Literary Supplement "Waldman
has developed her own patented brand of rhythmically insistent modal structure,
both conveying and imitating the transitoriness of the human moment. Occurring
at key points in this scheme, harmonistic images of natural wholeness, reconciliation,
and plentitude provide the chords that hold the receptive, inclusive structures
together." - San Francisco Chronicle "‘Incantation’
is a passionate reflection on the poet’s craft and role, on the contemporary meaning
and purpose of expression itself. . . . This poem of ‘reciprocity between the
woman and her mind’ has its best moments in its recognition of the planet’s vulnerability
in the face of greed and weapons technology . . . . These poems are most moving
not when they perform, but when they ponder and reflect. Then their difficulty
resolves itself into light, the pure transparency of the soul given speech as
it breathes in and out." - Patricia Hampl, The New York Times Book Review With
passion, wit, and inventiveness, Helping the Dreamer continues Anne Waldman’s
commitments to the major themes of our era: nuclear war, the environment, and
the sexual tension that can bring richness as well as confusion to human relationships.
In recent years this poet has been experimenting with new ways to present poetry
in performance - this book explodes with the energy Waldman brings to the stage,
capturing the free-flowing spirit, accuracy, and range of subjects her writing
encompasses. Waldman
has developed an international reputation as a performer of her own work, giving
many readings from coast-to-coast as well as throughout Europe. She is the founder
(with Allen Ginsberg) of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa
Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Her other books include Baby Breakdown, Make Up
On Empty Space, and Skin Meat Bones.
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