Open Shutters
Author: Salter, Mary Jo
ISBN: 9780375710148
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE US
Year first published: 25 Jan 2005
Pages: 96
Format: Paperback / softback
Now in paperback, an exciting, provocative, and rewarding collection from one of the most appealing of our younger poets.BR>BR>Mary Jo Salter's sparkling new collection,b> Open Shutters/b>, leads us into a world where things are often not what they seem. In the first poem, "Trompe l'Oeil," the shadow-casting shutters on Genoese houses are made of paint only, an "open lie." And yet "Who needs to be correct / more often than once a day? / Who needs real shadow more than play?"br>br>b>Open Shutters/b> also calls to mind the lens of a camera-in the villanelle "School Pictures" or in the stirring sequence "In the Guesthouse," which, inspired by photographs of a family across three generations, offers at once a social history of America and a love story.br>br>Darkness and light interact throughout the book-in poems about September 11; about a dog named Shadow; about a blind centenarian who still pretends to read the paper; about a woman shaken by the death of her therapist. A section of light verse highlights the wit and grace that have long distinguished Salter's most serious work.br>br>Fittingly, the volume fools the eye once more by closing with "An Open Book," in which a Muslim family praying at a funeral seek consolation in the pages formed by their upturned palms.br>b>br>Open Shutters /b>is the achievement of a remarkable poet, whose concerns and stylistic range continue to grow, encompassing ever larger themes, becoming ever more open.
ISBN: 9780375710148
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE US
Year first published: 25 Jan 2005
Pages: 96
Format: Paperback / softback
Now in paperback, an exciting, provocative, and rewarding collection from one of the most appealing of our younger poets.BR>BR>Mary Jo Salter's sparkling new collection,b> Open Shutters/b>, leads us into a world where things are often not what they seem. In the first poem, "Trompe l'Oeil," the shadow-casting shutters on Genoese houses are made of paint only, an "open lie." And yet "Who needs to be correct / more often than once a day? / Who needs real shadow more than play?"br>br>b>Open Shutters/b> also calls to mind the lens of a camera-in the villanelle "School Pictures" or in the stirring sequence "In the Guesthouse," which, inspired by photographs of a family across three generations, offers at once a social history of America and a love story.br>br>Darkness and light interact throughout the book-in poems about September 11; about a dog named Shadow; about a blind centenarian who still pretends to read the paper; about a woman shaken by the death of her therapist. A section of light verse highlights the wit and grace that have long distinguished Salter's most serious work.br>br>Fittingly, the volume fools the eye once more by closing with "An Open Book," in which a Muslim family praying at a funeral seek consolation in the pages formed by their upturned palms.br>b>br>Open Shutters /b>is the achievement of a remarkable poet, whose concerns and stylistic range continue to grow, encompassing ever larger themes, becoming ever more open.
