The Book of the Dead Man, Volume 1Marvin Bell's ninth major collection of poems is groundbreaking, his most provocative and imaginative work to date. The phrase the dead man resounds throughout like a drumbeat registering the wisdom and genius of ignorance, fallibility, and mutability with a Zen-like detachment. Defying paraphrase, Bell's new poems demand to be understood in the context of the incantatory line as he illuminates the transcendent inscape in its moment of self-revelation. The Book of the Dead Man demolishes boundaries between lyric poetry and serio-comic intensity, and announces a poetics of striking spiritual candor. |
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Page 17
... longer hears the higher register of the chandelier . The dead man listens for pedal notes and thunder , tubas and bassoons . He reads lips without telling anyone , but others know . He can no longer scratch his back so he stands near ...
... longer hears the higher register of the chandelier . The dead man listens for pedal notes and thunder , tubas and bassoons . He reads lips without telling anyone , but others know . He can no longer scratch his back so he stands near ...
Page 23
... longer acute , a constant state of being . Because the dead man is in a constant state of being , his condition is chronic , no longer acute . He thinks that language will be the death of us so he prefers gestures . Now he points by ...
... longer acute , a constant state of being . Because the dead man is in a constant state of being , his condition is chronic , no longer acute . He thinks that language will be the death of us so he prefers gestures . Now he points by ...
Page 41
... longer a human being , a dead man was no longer alive though everyone knew better . Now the dead man feels the steamy weight of the world . He trembles at the press of the witch hunters , their clothes like night . He has in his memory ...
... longer a human being , a dead man was no longer alive though everyone knew better . Now the dead man feels the steamy weight of the world . He trembles at the press of the witch hunters , their clothes like night . He has in his memory ...
Contents
Preface | 11 |
1 About the Dead Man | 15 |
About the Dead Man | 17 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles ask the dead atom better BOOK bottom brain COPPER CANYON PRESS cortege dark dead man feels dead man hears dead man holds dead man knows dead man lives dead man mistakes dead man puts dead man remembers dead man says dead man sings dead man speaks dead man takes dead man thinks dead man throws dead man votes DEAD MAN'S BELOVED dead man's blood dead man's bones dead man's eyes dead man's masks dead man's poems dead man's shoes dirt dreams Duende earth everything face funny bone future goes grass hair Harry Houdini head hidden ball trick hourglass inside lamp and wristwatch light longer look MARVIN BELL mirror moon pain PARALLEL UNIVERSE perfected fallibility planet poetry postscript shadow shoulder Siamese twin skin skull sleep stone sweat tautologist teeth there's things thinks himself invisible thunder tree turns walk watch wears winter words