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The Astonished Universe
The Astonished Universe is an uplifting and luminous book of poetry about consciousness. It is Red Hen Press' first bilingual edition in English and French.
- GenresPoetry
104 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2006
About the author
Helene Cardona
13 books137 followersHÉLÈNE CARDONA is a poet, literary translator, and actor, author of Life in Suspension (Salmon Poetry), Dreaming My Animal Selves (Salmon Poetry), The Abduction (Maram Al-Masri, White Pine Press), Birnam Wood (José Manuel Cardona, Salmon Poetry), Beyond Elsewhere (Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac, White Pine Press), Ce que nous portons (Dorianne Laux, Éd. du Cygne) and The Astonished Universe (Red Hen Press). Winner: Albertine & FACE Foundation Grant, Hemingway Grant, Independent Press Award, NYC Big Book Award, Readers' Favorite Book Award, Best Book Award, Pinnacle Best Bilingual Book Award, Julie Suk Honor, International Book Award...
Hélène holds an MA in American Literature from the Sorbonne, taught at Hamilton College & Loyola Marymount University, and received fellowships from the Goethe-Institut & Universidad Internacional de Andalucía.
She translated Whitman's War Writings for the University of Iowa's WhitmanWeb.
She co-edits Levure Littéraire.
Hélène had roles in Chocolat, Star Trek Discovery, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Muppets Most Wanted, World War Z, Mumford, and Happy Feet 2, among many. For Serendipity, she co-wrote with Peter Chelsom and Alan Silvestri the song Lucienne, which she also sang.
She also writes children stories and co-wrote with John FitzGerald the screenplay Primate, based on his novel.
Born in Paris and raised all over Europe, she has lived in Switzerland, France, England, Wales, Monaco, Germany, Spain and the United States.
Hélène holds an MA in American Literature from the Sorbonne, taught at Hamilton College & Loyola Marymount University, and received fellowships from the Goethe-Institut & Universidad Internacional de Andalucía.
She translated Whitman's War Writings for the University of Iowa's WhitmanWeb.
She co-edits Levure Littéraire.
Hélène had roles in Chocolat, Star Trek Discovery, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Muppets Most Wanted, World War Z, Mumford, and Happy Feet 2, among many. For Serendipity, she co-wrote with Peter Chelsom and Alan Silvestri the song Lucienne, which she also sang.
She also writes children stories and co-wrote with John FitzGerald the screenplay Primate, based on his novel.
Born in Paris and raised all over Europe, she has lived in Switzerland, France, England, Wales, Monaco, Germany, Spain and the United States.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 13, 2017
Editorial Reviews
“Hélène Cardona is a woman of many languages. Here you will hear the tones of an elegy, a prayer, and most of all, the fairy-tale. I was moved by these pieces. As Hélène shows us, together with Hafiz, ‘this place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.’”
—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing at Odessa
"These spare, open-hearted poems reveal Hélène Cardona's astonished universe and give us a glimpse into a world full of light."
—Dorianne Laux, author of Facts About the Moon
Poems that explore and claim whole worlds - embracing and beautiful.
--Olympia Dukakis
“Hélène’s poems sing to the spirit of things and the things of Spirit. Each delicious word and sentence is worth savoring, and makes a feast for the soul. A compelling read. I could not put it down!
—Alberto Villoldo PhD, author of Shaman, Healer, Sage
“This luminous poetry carries readers into the world of dreams, where animals bear mythic surprises and the rhythm of the rain reveals the hidden language of the universe.”
—John FitzGerald, author of Spring Water and The Mind
“Hélène Cardona is a woman of many languages. Here you will hear the tones of an elegy, a prayer, and most of all, the fairy-tale. I was moved by these pieces. As Hélène shows us, together with Hafiz, ‘this place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.’”
—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing at Odessa
"These spare, open-hearted poems reveal Hélène Cardona's astonished universe and give us a glimpse into a world full of light."
—Dorianne Laux, author of Facts About the Moon
Poems that explore and claim whole worlds - embracing and beautiful.
--Olympia Dukakis
“Hélène’s poems sing to the spirit of things and the things of Spirit. Each delicious word and sentence is worth savoring, and makes a feast for the soul. A compelling read. I could not put it down!
—Alberto Villoldo PhD, author of Shaman, Healer, Sage
“This luminous poetry carries readers into the world of dreams, where animals bear mythic surprises and the rhythm of the rain reveals the hidden language of the universe.”
—John FitzGerald, author of Spring Water and The Mind
March 13, 2009
Helene Cardona wrote these deeply spiritual poems in English, then translated them to her native French. There is a terrific dreamlike energy in these poems, and I especially enjoy the autobiographical poems about Cardona's experience growing up all over Europe. Just beautiful, beautiful work!
Please listen to my interview with Cardona here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/v...
Please listen to my interview with Cardona here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/v...
April 8, 2013
This luminous poetry carries readers into the world of dreams, where animals bear mythic surprises and the rhythm of the rain reveals the hidden language of the universe.
August 1, 2008
It is a bilingual book with versions of the poems in both French and English. The sound of each poem in French is a much more visceral experience for me than in English, and I think that the sublime feeling of losing myself in the language is harder to find in English because I have studied it so intensely. My knowledge has given me a depth of understanding that makes up for the loss of that sort of naive wonder, but having the French and English together allowed me to get the best of both worlds.
The book started off very well, and the first two sections were excellent, but the poems became more vague and dreamy as the book shifted to more a metaphysical focus in the third and especially the fourth section. I still enjoyed it, but I was disappointed by the somewhat weak and ungrounded poems that made the final section feel like the book just trailed off into abstractions.
The book started off very well, and the first two sections were excellent, but the poems became more vague and dreamy as the book shifted to more a metaphysical focus in the third and especially the fourth section. I still enjoyed it, but I was disappointed by the somewhat weak and ungrounded poems that made the final section feel like the book just trailed off into abstractions.
September 4, 2014
This is a wonderful book. I have read it often. I am often cheered up by poetry and this does that for me. Great read!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews