Runaway audiobook

I have read Jorie Graham for a long time, and this book spoke to me in a way her last few have not. With its use of meter and short lines and then wildly long-line (almost prose poem) cuts back and forth between minimalist and maximalist. Even sometimes within a long tine poem, terse sentences will form the juxtaposition. The tensions run throughout the text: the self getting away from itself, technology getting away from itself, the climate getting away from itself. Everything seeming to runaway.

There was a lot there, some really memorable sections. Think I should have read this one slower, or it would benefit from a second read-- a little experimental and dense, though that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Makes sense that this is so new because the content is very on-the-nose for this year- climate change, what we can expect from the future, the information economy, what love can ultimately sustain. Did gain something.

Runaway is essential to me as a poet. It opens whole areas of consciousness that I haven't seen articulated before! Especially, "WHEREAS AS I HAD NOT YET IN THIS LIFE SEEN": truly transforming in its in/sight! “WHEREAS AS I HAD NOT YET IN THIS LIFE SEENstillness. Stillness in time. Rich concentrate. Late summer late-day light. Over butnot on magenta…shuddering done, no lift or fall, no, no interval, no thought, no whispering of thought, no. Noticing blends with light. Seeing is light.

Dense. There is so much here I need to spend more time to process and understand.

The poems in Runaway do run away, taking the reader's mind right along with them into the conversation between them and within themselves and at times adressing the reader directly. Clear-eyed, they move in regular stanzas, long lines and/or sentences into minute details. To go into, to forget one's bearings, to feel each distinct part and fall apart, to step out of time, to be in place, to be in apocalyptic time are some of the themes plumbed throughout the collection. And out of these a space and a language unfold. The poetry is as abstract as it is concrete:"[...]. Ilie on this floor. I feel the wide slats of the old-growth pine along my back. Theypush up into my gravity, I think, I push my place down into place, eyes closed I pushdown through the subflooring the foundation into grey soil not touched by light incenturies. I'll break it open now. I'll push into the roots that died when place wascleared of place. Dismembered roots, here was my zip, my street address. My name."(last lines of When Overfull of Pain I)or"But they are still there on the steps--the money changers. The stepsof evening rise. They want you to exchange. That is the sacrament. Why does he keep throwing them out.Day after day. Forever. Listen to me, you say, your are going off intothought, it is not a real road. Take yourselfoff the road. He is and is not but he is. Andyou are always in the holy place. Becausejust being in it makes it holy. Uphold it. Linger. Be eternal for thisinstant. [...]"(from Exchange)

You know that trope of standing in front of a piece of art and thinking, "I could do that."?This book is not that. It's a tangled thicket, but masterfully done. I was lost (and, so, disinterested) in a few. But most were so gripping, even when the narrator or thread was not obvious. For example, I read "Exchange", and I don't get it. But I love it.When, in part 3, the subject clearly turns to someone named and an idea to hold onto, things become clearer. But even elsewhere the songs are distinct and compelling.

Runaway is a beautiful poetry collection with the feel of a native American soul. The author reads the audiobook and has an engaging and warm delivery. She covers various topics, and while you may not connect with every poem, you are sure to find moments to smile, relax, and enjoy.

The latest book of poems by award-winning poet and Harvard professor Jorie Graham. Vivid prose poems, and Graham has an amazingly vivid way with describing nature. The peoms are divided into 4 sections in the larger volume. (Rating: 4.3/5.)

"How easily we wear ourselves as if it is nothing to have origin, whirl, outcome and still be." From Scarcely There

Amazing writing, a clairvoyant collection. Deep and expansive. And that I didn't understand a lot of it is what ironically pulled me in the most. It's good to learn. Or at least give it a go...