false 47314960 455734 6285956 0226093107 9780226093109 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255631680m/6285956.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255631680s/6285956.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6285956.The_Lions 3.75 4 Big Avalanche Ravine</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">Just the warning light on a blue crane.</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">Just mountains. Just the mist that skimmed</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">them both and bled to silver rain</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">lashing the condominiums.</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">But there it sank on me. This urge</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">to carve a life from the long expanse.</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">To hold some ground against the surge</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">of sheer material. It was a tense</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">and persistent and metallic shiver.</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">And it stayed, that tremor, small and stark</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">as the noise of the hidden river</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">fluming its edge against the dark.</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">In his second collection of poems, Peter Campion writes about the struggle of making a life in America, about the urge “to carve a space” for love and family from out of the vast sweep of modern life. Coursing between the political and personal with astonishing ease, Campion writes at one moment of his disturbing connection to the public political structure, symbolized by Robert McNamara (who makes a startling appearance in the title poem), then in the next, of a haunting reverie beneath a magnolia tree, representing his impulse to escape the culture altogether. He moves through various forms just as effortlessly, as confident in rhymed quatrains as in slender, tensed free verse. In The Lions, Campion achieves a fusion of narrative structure and lyric intensity that proves him to be one of the very best poets of his generation. </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">Praise for Other People           </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">“Campion is a poet who knows that what a poet sees is nothing without a mixture of formal prowess and emotional insight.”—David Biespiel, The Oregonian</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P></DIV> (20081006)]]> 701980 4.00 9 0 2009 5 0 false Sun Mar 01 16:35:27 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 17:31:53 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 16:35:27 -0800 2009