Horizon Note: Volume 2001

by Robin Behn

Book Overview

A son is born too early, as if coming up over the horizon before his own dawn. An elderly father lingers at life's other horizon. In language dense and clear, playful and somber, and with a formal exactitude and emotional amplitude suggestive of her own musical training, Behn traverses these horizons "extracting," like the horizon note that drones through traditional Indian music, "a red needle from the sky."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299175340
• ISBN13: 9780299175344
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 118 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Read it. Savor it.

One of the best books of contemporary poetry I have ever read. A poet writing today can only hope to reach the depths that Behn does.

The real thing

Behn's new book is magnificent. Poem after poem, hear such clarity of complication, such intelligence, such heart. If this book doesn't win ALL the prizes, I'll be surprised. On the other hand, it's a book that in all good ways doesn't seem to care about prizes. It's ambition has some eternity in it. Any serious reader of poetry will cherish this book.

Speaking of Music

The opening poem of Horizon Note introduces a spider who reappears at intervals throughout this book. The speaker states,"If you play the fat black note of her body/anywhere upon her intricate staff/it only sounds like her." And the word-music Behn composes within this compelling book only sounds like her. She has all her poetic instruments in tune. Through rhyme or playful word trills or long melodious movements of thought and sound, she playfully and painfully pushes words to their limits to confront and question their beauties and their frailties. Behn is a maestro here who understands the power of language, and at every turn--even in its griefs, its failings--she finds the music there. A stunning collection of poems.