Poems (1962-1997)

by John Beer (Editor), Robert Lax (Author)

New
Paperback
2013
$17.97

One of the great original voices of our times--a pilgrim in search of beautiful innocence. --Jack Kerouac Robert Lax's poems [prove] yet again that the gift to be simple is the gift to be free, that less is more, and that least may sometimes be most. --John Ashbery Poems (1962--1997) gathers thirty-five years of Robert Lax's work, rarely published and largely composed in solitude on the island of Patmos. Compiled and edited by the poet's former assistant John Beer, this selection reflects--through meditative sequences in striking vertical columns--Lax's rigorous attention to the world around him and his relentless aspiration to new ways of writing. love & death are blood & bone love & death are bread & stone love & death are rose & thorn (love & death are sheep & shorn) Robert Lax (1915--2000) published dozens of volumes of poetry and prose with small presses and worked as an editor for the New Yorker, Jubilee, and PAX. From 1962 to the end of his life, he made his home in the Greek islands. John Beer is the author of The Waste Land and Other Poems (Canarium, 2010), which won the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. For two years in the late 1990s, he served as literary assistant to Robert Lax. He currently lives and teaches in Oregon.

Synopsis

One of the great original voices of our times--a pilgrim in search of beautiful innocence. --Jack Kerouac Robert Lax's poems [prove] yet again that the gift to be simple is the gift to be free, that less is more, and that least may sometimes be most. --John Ashbery Poems (1962--1997) gathers thirty-five years of Robert Lax's work, rarely published and largely composed in solitude on the island of Patmos. Compiled and edited by the poet's former assistant John Beer, this selection reflects--through meditative sequences in striking vertical columns--Lax's rigorous attention to the world around him and his relentless aspiration to new ways of writing. love & death are blood & bone love & death are bread & stone love & death are rose & thorn (love & death are sheep & shorn) Robert Lax (1915--2000) published dozens of volumes of poetry and prose with small presses and worked as an editor for the New Yorker, Jubilee, and PAX. From 1962 to the end of his life, he made his home in the Greek islands. John Beer is the author of The Waste Land and Other Poems (Canarium, 2010), which won the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. For two years in the late 1990s, he served as literary assistant to Robert Lax. He currently lives and teaches in Oregon.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Publisher: Wave Books
Published: 28 Nov 2013
ISBN 10: 193351776X
ISBN 13: 9781933517766
Book Overview: * As the collection's editor, John Beer plans to give readings from the book in a variety of locations, including the Northwest, New York City, Boston and Chicago. He plans to attend 2014's AWP as well to promote the book.* We will solicit reviews from top-tier publications, including The New York Times, which published his obituary in 2000. * We plan to solicit a review or article from The New Yorker, which Lax worked for as an editor in the 1940s.* We will seek reviews and features in art-focused journals and magazines who may be interested in the visual and artistic elements of Lax's poetic form. * We will reach out to poets and academics who write blogs, such as Ron Silliman, who we hope will champion this comprehensive collection and spread the word to avid poetry readers. * We will highlight this title for early 2014 course adoption in our email to academics, and send complimentary copies to academics interested in teaching Lax's work.* We plan to promote this title through our facebook, tumblr, and twitter accounts, and through a pre-publication sale on our website.

Author Bio

Robert Lax (1915-2000) published dozens of volumes of poetry and prose journals with small presses in Europe and the United States, as well as A Catch of Anti-Letters, correspondence with his lifelong friend Thomas Merton. Educated at Columbia University, he worked as an editor for The New Yorker, Jubilee, and PAX. From 1962 to the end of his life, he made his home in the Greek islands, first Kalymnos and ultimately Patmos. John Beer is the author of The Waste Land and Other Poems (Canarium, 2010), which won the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he lived on the Greek island of Patmos for two years in the late 1990s, where he served as literary assistant to Robert Lax. He currently teaches creative writing at Portland State University; previously, he reviewed theater for Time Out Chicago.