Art, diction, tone, and organization is four poetry books by Bidart, Barrett, Tate, and Hull

I have noticed that, for many poets, the lines that separate one artistic realm from another are rather blurred, to not say non-existent. It is not uncommon to find musicians, who also write poetry, or poets who also paint, or architects who sculpt. At times, for poets, these incursions into other artforms are reflected in their writing. It is also normal to talk, in poetics, about rhythm, musicality, structure, composition, image, and the like, all terms that also apply to other mediums.
In the four books referred to in here, the employ of other arts techniques –besides poetry, are apparent. “Star Dust” by Frank Bidart is rich is allusions to music. Poems in “Into perfect spheres such holes are pierced” by Catherine Barrett, make many references to painting. “The worshipful company of fletchers” by James Tate, often evokes the video and collage artforms. The “Complete poems” by Linda Hull also bring to mind painting and drama.

“Star Dust” is organized in two parts. Section I is titled “Music like dirt”, the poem that gives title to this section is written in pairs of sentences with a third sentence separating the pairs, that resembles a chorus-like repetition: music like dirt, music like dirt. In “For Bill Nestrick (1940-96) there is allusion to desideratum; one cannot avoid remembering the spiritual poem “Desiderata” written by Max Erhmann in 1927 and the music set into it by Les Crane in 1971. In Bidart’s book, there are also a “Little fugue”, “Stanza ending with the same two words”, “Heart beat”, and “Song”, all of which make reference to musical terms. Finally, the long poem, “The third hour of the night” is entirely devoted to the life of Italian composer Benvenuto Cellini.

The central theme of the book is a criticism of modernity, especially post-modernity in the XX and XXI first century America. Written in a language similar to that of philosophical discourse and self-reflection, “Star dust” is about the poet’s role as maker (as stated in the interview at the end of the book) of poetry and of sense in the chaos of this world. After al, poetry comes from the Greek poiesis (to make).

“Into perfect spheres…” by Catherine Barrett, narrates the story of the author’s nieces accidental death, and of everything she perceived in the family while vacationing in the beach with the devastated mother (her sister). Written in a more everyday-like language, “Into perfect spheres…” also makes numerous references to other artforms. There is a Frontispiece, which is an architecture term along with a Living Room with Altar. There are Site and Site II, with a Transcript, Duration, and Dinosaurs, which call archeology and paleontology to mind. Then there are a Portrait, a Son with Older Boys, and several Still Life poems that evoke painting (the poet’s mother is referenced in several occasions as a painter). At the same time gloomy and chatty, desolate and optimistic, the book is full of images about art in many forms. This collection is organized into three sections that I could classify as the tragedy, the denial, and the acceptance.

James Tate’s “The worshipful company of fletchers” is the most innovative in this group, in both language structure and subject treatment. Several references are made to painting with titles like Head of a White Woman Winking and Color in the Garden, there are also references to film and photography as in The Documentary we were Making and 50 Views of Tokyo. Truth be told, the entire book stroke me as a cinematic experience, as a psychedelic trip where a torrent of unconventional images, colors, and situations, explode in the mind as the moving poems are read.

The “Complete Poems” of Lynda Hull span her work of only a few years (she died at age forty) with an output so intense yet of a consistent high quality and lyricism. Each phrase of each poem appears constructed with the precision of a Michelangelo. Allusions to artforms are numerous: Hollywood Jazz, Love Song, Adagio (music), Cubism, Barcelona (painting). To me, nevertheless, the success of these excellent poems radiates from the direct appeal they make to the readers’ souls and minds. Like an intricate jewelry worker, Ms. Hull offers in each poem a myriad of details of what she speaks of, a craft she perfected over time. One can see how earlier poems were not as dense and rich as the later ones. The book was organized by her husband, after her death, in a chronological order, including previous books and some new poems. The result is a panoramic view of this great canvas of Lynda’s poetry, an immense mural that extends a far as the eye can see.