Poetry. Berrigan's last collection of poems, these were written originally on postcards with drawings by the author; photos of some of the postcards are included. His widow, Alice Notley, has written an introduction in which she characterizes the writing as "a realm of shorter poems, written in a newly freed voice, that drifts among day-book, epigram & lyric, in all literary awareness, describing the feel of a difficult year."
I described this to friend as negotiating and extracting from about four literary movements that I find in themselves annoying and coming up with some great work that is by turns funny, elegant and a masterful play off the cliches of 20th century culture and the British tradition. Lines at once claustrophobic and lovely. Anyone looking for a palatable introduction to American poetry since 1980--if immersed in and loving the beat/blackmountain/deep image/pound/ camps--would do very well to start here. I'll be reading more Berrigan in the future.
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