Slowly, Slowly, Horses

by Julianne Buchsbaum

Poetry. "Julianne Buchsbaum's SLOWLY, SLOWLY, HORSES is a quietly furious book. Her language is as rich and eerily fascinating as bending down to look closely at something decomposing. But this is a different sort of nature poetry - her landscape is "a pasture of taints", and her close observation of nature is really a close observation of language...There is something of Wallace Stevens in her precision, her incredible diction, and in the way her descriptions are simultaneously direct and mythical. She is also a redeemer of the simile in an age that distrusts simile; her ease and originality with them 'lingers/ like the perfume of a woman/ who has rushed from the room.' Which is exactly the case with her poems" - Matthew Rohrer.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2001

Reviews

[John Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julianne Buchsbaum's "Slowly, Slowly, Horses" has the meditative quality of a bowling ball trying to survive on a glass floor.

The comparisons to Wallace Stevens are apt, but I see a darker shade in Buchsbaum's work than I ever saw in him, not that this should be a negative quality.

"I, a conduit, a mocking
cavity, an ivory dice--
decipher me, forewarned.
Whatever objects you place
to the smooth bowl of my face--
they all vanish quietly.
For years I strove for the sheen
of lustrous metals; I laved
away the scars and debris
that once had draped necklaces
of cowrie shells, ceramic
beads, and leopard teeth
around my life--ornametal,
but outlandish in their clatter."

This is simply exquisite, beautiful work. Highly recommended for anyone interested in poetry.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

as though the self could escape / its own bad weather