Dervish

By Gerard Wozek

Winner of the Gival Press Poetry Award. This rich whirl of the dervish traverses a grand expanse from bars to crazy dreams to fruition of desire. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1928589111
• ISBN13: 9781928589112
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Gival Press
• Length: 62 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.8" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Locating the sacred in mundane moments

The prevalent themes in this ambitious first book by Chicago, Illinois native Wozek are travel and identity. For some, traveling means leaping to the unknown where we're somehow freer to embrace whatever or whomever all in the name of revelation. The result of this treatment of travel is poetry written not in the spirit of expression, but in the spirit of discovery. With lines like "until I shimmer like polished ivory,/ stir and thrash like a new god" and "your eyes give back/ my whole desire" we see the speaker's internal struggle in virtually every poem. As truth unravels for the speaker, it's revealing itself to the readers as well. It is this feeling of collectivism that makes reading and re-reading Dervish a cardinal experience. The logistical progression of these poems, though, is difficult to comment on. The readers wander through Italy and France, to India and Germany, to the USA and then back to France, then to Algeria, Poland, Italy and Mexico. On one hand, the sundry locations are jarring and scattered, but on the other hand they speak to that sense of dervish - how the soul simultaneously exists in many geographies, yet no one particular place. Thus, this structure is one of restlessness. Through this capricious physical setting, the poet twirls the readers. We whirl and whirl, unable to discern ground from sky. Wozek's consistently descriptive language, where precision is the primary concern, involves the readers. Textured diction such as "until they suffocated in their long manly moans" and "we swallow silk" shows Wozek's ability to accurately depict a moment. Not only this, but his poems evoke great writers such as Diane Ackerman ("I sing praises to my destroyer") and Jane Hirshfield (seen in his stellar use of directives in poems Spell for Changing Bodies and Ritual for Letting Go). However, at times the uses of language both push and pull the reader. Private and referential lines such as "not a jolt/ from a melange at the Hawelka" have a distancing effect. Yet, at the same time, Wozek's words (for example: "and let the damp gardenia air swell our lungs") convey a certain intimacy, like inviting a known voyeur into one's home. What's most remarkable about this collection is its adoration: love of language, man, travel, and love of self. So, for all who are unafraid to journey from the self and to the self by way of sex and beauty, then close the blinds, smash the television, pour a glass of Merlot, pull up a sofa, and indulge in Dervish. Fear not, for this won't be the last of Gerard Wozek. The book's final sentiment rightfully forecasts Wozek's position on our national poetry scene: "I persist."

An impressive and memorable compendium

Dervish is an impressive and memorable compendium showcasing the poetry of Gerard Wozek. A master wordsmith, Wozek's poetry is eloquent, moving, and leaves behind an intellectual and emotional impact that hallmarks him as a truly gifted poet. A calendar from Krakow/with unpronounceable days./Printed with glos-sy photos/of floodlit church steeples/and crenellated towers./Exotica to pitch/a tou-rist's imagination elsewhere./The camera lens keeps/less affluent residents/out of the frame./Perhaps they're behind/the old cloth hall/or in the pee-rancid train depot/where the old communist songs/still raise the rafters./Wood shavings on the waiting room/floor make soft nests/at the shoeless feet of comrades,/where their carved birds/wait to fly overseas/for only two zloty.

Incantory Poet

Bravo! Gerard Wozek joins hands with mystic poets Rumi, Whitman, and Rimbaud in his celebration of the body electric. Despite his earthy references (sometimes more confessional than confidential) to carnality, there is a desire in Wozek's poems to move towards beauty and transcendence. Featured at the Lambda Literary Festival 2001, this slim volume presents lyrical snapshots of the poet divining what is most sacred at both emotional and sexual crossroads. A noteworthy debut!