“Poems as cool as they are passionate, as soft-spoken as they are indignant, and as fiercely Romantic as they are formally contained. . . . A...
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Nov 27, 2007
Anna
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Lease’s “pieces of mirror sweep the word” and allow the reader to reflect on their situation as a self in American, personal and ancestral space.
Broken World is an astonishing book whose magic unfolds with each re-turning of the page. It is an inexhaustible energy source to savor and return to for hope and inspiration when faced by the fixed nature of America’s paved over interior and exterior landscapes. Lease grasps for other voices to chant and pray with the full potential of w More...
Broken World is an astonishing book whose magic unfolds with each re-turning of the page. It is an inexhaustible energy source to savor and return to for hope and inspiration when faced by the fixed nature of America’s paved over interior and exterior landscapes. Lease grasps for other voices to chant and pray with the full potential of w More...
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Nov 30, 2007
Bradley
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An extraordinary book--lyrical, sprawling and energetic. Lease is in full command of his voice, and he's really doing something new and exciting with Broken World.
Both heartbroken and proud, Broken World is, in part, a journey through the hazy periphery of American identity. Busted systems and spiritual tangles abound, but the interior path of discovery is tough, resilient and not at all cynical or patronizing. Creeley and Williams are good launching points, but Lease's toolbox is overflow More...
Both heartbroken and proud, Broken World is, in part, a journey through the hazy periphery of American identity. Busted systems and spiritual tangles abound, but the interior path of discovery is tough, resilient and not at all cynical or patronizing. Creeley and Williams are good launching points, but Lease's toolbox is overflow More...
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Nov 26, 2007
John
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Broken World is one of the best books of poetry I have read in many years. A good many books these days are impressive in a technical sense but feel empty; Joseph Lease's book is technically brilliant, but it is also powerful stuff that speaks from the broken heart of our culture; it is smart--even hip--but it does the good, old fashioned work of emboldening the soul in a way that didn't seem possible before. Read it!
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Jan 08, 2008
Joshua
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Over the past year or so I have read two books of contemporary poetry that strike me as indispensable: Joseph Lease's "Broken World" and Alice Notley's "In the Pines". I mention them together because they seem to be engaged in somewhat similar projects--expansive political poetics incorporating the lyric, popular culture, critiques of capitalism, domination and authoritarianism in its multiple forms. Yet maintaining a sense of tragic humor, giving them a buoyant quality, sav
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Jan 03, 2008
anya
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Lease's "Broken World" expresses the horror of those of us who have chosen to look America in the face: throughout "Broken World," the collective "we" would shame America for her reliance on economic systems that destroy people's lives, or her faith in a progress that erases all which has come before it, etc.; however, for me, poems that only shame lose their desirability: instead, Lease's poems refuse to not hope, they beg and pray for saving. The paradox for
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Dec 05, 2009
Trane
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This is one of the most amazing books of poetry I've read in ages. Inspiring, beautiful, and angry — always ready to take language where it needs to go in order to rend the commonplace into something new. "Broken World (for James Assatly)" holds a lyrical sadness that is so crystalline and pure that it's amazing that it can hold itself together despite the force of rage that shoots through it:
"Arrows on water;
You are with me —
rain on snow —
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"Arrows on water;
You are with me —
rain on snow —
More...
Jul 12, 2007
Patrick
rated it:
(For the purposes of full disclosure, I have to admit this is a somewhat biased review, as Joseph Lease is a friend, and I myself had a hand in the pre-press copyediting. That being said--)
Broken World begins in a low tone, an easing of whispered language, reminiscent of James Schuyler or Robert Creeley (himself somewhat of a mentor to Lease.) That ease soon fades as we move into the title poem, a eulogy for Lease's friend James Assatly, who died of AIDS at a young age shortly after More...
Broken World begins in a low tone, an easing of whispered language, reminiscent of James Schuyler or Robert Creeley (himself somewhat of a mentor to Lease.) That ease soon fades as we move into the title poem, a eulogy for Lease's friend James Assatly, who died of AIDS at a young age shortly after More...
Dec 02, 2007
Andy
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In Lease's article "progressive lit," while looking for possibilities for the lyric "I," he points the the poetry of Amiri Baraka. Baraka, in Lease's view, is a poet whose "I" contains multiple voices, whose "I" reaches toward the societal "we," opening the space for meaningful political poetry.
If Lease's article shows him championing the possibilities of the lyric "I" through a critical mode, then Broken World shows his o More...
If Lease's article shows him championing the possibilities of the lyric "I" through a critical mode, then Broken World shows his o More...
Aug 19, 2009
Oscar
rated it: 
Definitely lives up to the title.
In live readings, Joseph Lease's Broken World comes across as Walt Whitman's voice echoing from his grave to comment on the current US condition. In the text, it's that accompanied with a youthful, childlike second voice reminiscing on lost America as reconciliation becomes the central theme.
Must read through this again to see what else holds together Lease's beautifully fragmented language.
In live readings, Joseph Lease's Broken World comes across as Walt Whitman's voice echoing from his grave to comment on the current US condition. In the text, it's that accompanied with a youthful, childlike second voice reminiscing on lost America as reconciliation becomes the central theme.
Must read through this again to see what else holds together Lease's beautifully fragmented language.
Aug 22, 2009
Statmanm
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This is a fine and beautiful collection of poetry. Lease has a keen ear, a better eye. I'm challenged as a reader into thinking about language and line, yes, but also importantly about how the world is and could be. It's a quality too many poets whose work I think about don't think about enough. It's part of a 5+ feeling I have (five stars feels inadequate). In all, I feel fortunate to have this book in my library and in the world.
Mar 17, 2009
David
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There are parts of this book I wish I had written. Covetousness might be the highest form of praise:
If I cried out,
Who among the angelic orders would
Slap my face, who would steal my
Lunch money, knock me
Down—sailboats moored
In harbor, trees on the long
Breakwater, orange shimmer
Of late July evening—I can’t stop
Wanting the voice that will come—
If I cried out,
Who among the angelic orders would
Slap my face, who would steal my
Lunch money, knock me
Down—sailboats moored
In harbor, trees on the long
Breakwater, orange shimmer
Of late July evening—I can’t stop
Wanting the voice that will come—
Sep 17, 2009
Monica
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I was lucky to hear this author read in an small, upstairs space in a corner of Chicago. I bought the book immediately. It's smart, interesting, arresting.
Feb 12, 2009
Michael
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Remarkably inventive and evocative work from Joseph Lease, one of the finest poets writing today.
Mar 17, 2009
Sheila
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a book not to be missed, surprising and with infinite purity and depth
Mar 20, 2008
Mark
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I'm not a big poetry person -- much of it is usually a little too esoteric for me, with references to obscure Greek myths and Scandinavian heroes or, worse yet, Biblical allusions, which always just make me feel illiterate or evil -- with the Biblical stuff at least.
This book is down to earth. It's about real life, with real world phrases that can melt your heart or burn your brain. It's a little sad, though, conjuring the feeling of a desolate winter, wind howling over a gray landsc More...
This book is down to earth. It's about real life, with real world phrases that can melt your heart or burn your brain. It's a little sad, though, conjuring the feeling of a desolate winter, wind howling over a gray landsc More...
May 02, 2008
Addie
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There's a beautiful anger in Lease's poems, which provide a kind of elegy for a fallen America. The poems are lyrical, yet tough-minded; emotional, but clear-eyed. The volume is an exhilarating read, and Lease, in the end, proves a master of the long poem. It's good to see (and hear) poetry with such a political edge.
Mar 08, 2011
Melissa
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This is a kind of irony I can get behind -- a multiplicity of meanings, a complexity of utterance, a complicity, a critique. I prefer the second half, all poems called "Free Again."
"We are ourselves because this is the world's first morning, and we are ourselves because it is not, and we are also not ourselves."
"We are ourselves because this is the world's first morning, and we are ourselves because it is not, and we are also not ourselves."
Mar 02, 2008
John
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Astonishingly gorgeous, succinct, Joseph Lease's poems in Broken World are as beautiful as they are interested in beauty, and they are as reflective, critical, and revelatory of our times as they are equally hopeful of them. Joseph Lease is undoubtedly one of the most important poets of his generation.
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Sep 06, 2011
Mia
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"When we're gone, our names will mean green body. When we're gone, our names will mean green thought."
Why are his poems unlike anyone else's poems?
Why are they happily killing me?
Why are his poems unlike anyone else's poems?
Why are they happily killing me?
Aug 17, 2008
Ted
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At a time when a lot of poets are into an aesthetic that's too cool for politics, Lease is a responsible reminder of the true duties of what it means to be an artist-citizen.
Sep 15, 2008
Afcobb
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Certainly one of the best new poetry collections I've read in quite some time. Lease's voice is assured, original and breathtakingly poignant. Highly recommended.
Jun 12, 2008
Paul
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This Bay Area poet has created a form of the long poem that is poetry, performance, and political commentary that maintians sweep and lyric.
May 02, 2008
Dajoshap
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Lease's book: shattered and shattering, as Delaunay kept reiterating at the beginning of the last century, like the fruit-dish of Cezanne.
Apr 02, 2008
William
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Joseph Lease is one of the best writers in the US today. Broken World is a gorgeous, lyrical, socially conscious, important book for our times.
