| Handwriting Contributor(s): Ondaatje, Michael (Author) |
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ISBN: 0375705414 ISBN-13: 9780375705410 Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group OUR PRICE: $14.25 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2000 Annotation: The exquisite poems collected in Handwriting -- Michael Ondaatje's first book of new poems since The Cinnamon Peeler -- recall "the vista of a life". Drawing on history, mythology, landscape, and personal memories of Sri Lank, Ondaatje weaves a rich tapestry of images that evoke desire for -- and anguish over -- scents and gestures of lost loves, homes, and language. The verses, at turns spare and luminous, demonstrate the poet's unique artistry as he contemplates "the mirror world of art" in a time before books, when "handwriting occurred on waves, / on leaves, the scripts of smoke", recounts medieval monks "burying the Buddha in stone" amid the battle fire of war, and remembers a woman's "laughter with its/ intake of breath. Uhh huh". Crafted with lyrical delicacy and seductive power, Handwriting reminds us of Michael Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | American - General - Poetry | Canadian |
| Dewey: 811.54 |
| Series: Vintage International |
| Physical Information: 0.3" H x 5.23" W x 8.11" (0.25 lbs) 96 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: "Tumultuous, vibrant, tragic and over too soon." --Newsday Handwriting is Michael Ondaatje's first new book of poetry since The Cinnamon Peeler. The exquisite poems collected here draw on history, mythology, landscape, and personal memories to weave a rich tapestry of images that reveal the longing for--and expose the anguish over--lost loves, homes, and language, as the poet contemplates scents and gestures and evokes a time when "handwriting occurred on waves, / on leaves, the scripts of smoke" and remembers a woman's "laughter with its / intake of breath. Uhh huh." Crafted with lyrical delicacy and seductive power, Handwriting reminds us of Michael Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. |