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Too Long a Solitude
A new collection from the world-renowned lyricist
Acclaimed American poet James Ragan begins this newest collection of poems by asking whether “a rope could swing us / long and light across a widening trough / of all that fails us in our lives.” With these very first lines, Ragan draws readers into his world of vivid metaphor and evocative imagery, a world tinged with an aching sense of loss born of “a mind bereaved by solitude.”
Yet if Ragan needs solitude to construct his poems, we are inspired to join him. In Too Long a Solitude, he takes us on far-flung journeys from equatorial jungles to Arctic icebergs and from heartbreaking loneliness to ecstatic human connection. Readers become travelers, with Ragan their insightful guide.
“Ragan’s fine-grained poems move us through a remarkable range of total dexterity,” says poet C. K. Williams, and a strong streak of Wordsworthian nature-worship runs through the book. In “Bowing Trees,” this contemporary lyricist sings of saplings tending “to their ground as if the space were an altar.” His itinerant attention focuses in turn on the hills of London, rural roads in Belgium, and a garden wall in Vienna. Some journeys have the specificity of a scene witnessed (a Paris alley that might have entranced Picasso); others are journeys of the mind (a ride caught on an ice floe heading north out of Hudson Bay).
Too Long a Solitude migrates from isolation to communion. Beginning alone on an iceberg, we eventually find ourselves at one with a lover in a moonlit vale. As solitude lifts and the journey ends, the poet finds he need no longer travel to find solace. But we’re glad, all the same, to have shared the journey with him.
Acclaimed American poet James Ragan begins this newest collection of poems by asking whether “a rope could swing us / long and light across a widening trough / of all that fails us in our lives.” With these very first lines, Ragan draws readers into his world of vivid metaphor and evocative imagery, a world tinged with an aching sense of loss born of “a mind bereaved by solitude.”
Yet if Ragan needs solitude to construct his poems, we are inspired to join him. In Too Long a Solitude, he takes us on far-flung journeys from equatorial jungles to Arctic icebergs and from heartbreaking loneliness to ecstatic human connection. Readers become travelers, with Ragan their insightful guide.
“Ragan’s fine-grained poems move us through a remarkable range of total dexterity,” says poet C. K. Williams, and a strong streak of Wordsworthian nature-worship runs through the book. In “Bowing Trees,” this contemporary lyricist sings of saplings tending “to their ground as if the space were an altar.” His itinerant attention focuses in turn on the hills of London, rural roads in Belgium, and a garden wall in Vienna. Some journeys have the specificity of a scene witnessed (a Paris alley that might have entranced Picasso); others are journeys of the mind (a ride caught on an ice floe heading north out of Hudson Bay).
Too Long a Solitude migrates from isolation to communion. Beginning alone on an iceberg, we eventually find ourselves at one with a lover in a moonlit vale. As solitude lifts and the journey ends, the poet finds he need no longer travel to find solace. But we’re glad, all the same, to have shared the journey with him.
- GenresPoetry
88 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2009
About the author
James Ragan
19 books2 followersAuthor of 7 books and translated into 10 languages, James Ragan is a Czechoslovak-American poet who has read at Carnegie Hall and the United Nations and for 6 heads of state -- including Czech President Vaclav Klaus, S. Korean Prime Minister Young-Hoon Kang, and Mikhail Gorbachev at Moscow's International Poetry Festival (with Robert Bly and Bob Dylan). His poetry has been called "arresting and distinctive" (Richard Wilbur), "Fine-grained and witty," (C.K.Williams), and "dominating--with insight that marks major poets" (Miroslav Holub). His plays "The Landlord" and "Commedia" have been produced in Beijing, Moscow, Athens, etc. Ragan has worked as a screenwriter at Paramount Pictures for Producer Al Ruddy and in production on "The Border," "Exile," and Oscar winner "The Deer Hunter." He served for 25 yrs as Director of USC's Professional Writing Program and for 16 yrs as Distinguished Professor at Charles University in Prague. In 1996, Buzz Magazine named Ragan one of the "100 Coolest People in Los Angeles: Those Who Make a Difference."
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 22, 2009
The inverse of Ashbery, this might be the perfect book of poetry to give as a gift to someone who doesn't read much of it. James Ragan's work is easily paraphrasible, but so lyrically lush that it demands to be cherished. Ragan has always seemed to garner more attention abroad than in the States, and there's good reason for that -- I feel like North American verse is always time-stamped; poems tend to occupy a specific time and a meticulous space, perhaps because we don't have the same long sense of history. TOO LONG A SOLITUDE, like so much of the poetry written outside of our boarders, is elevated and timeless, as airy as it is flawless. Ragan strikes me as a contemporary Neruda, capable of generating this kind of scene. Plus, my hardcover copy is a beautiful object -- from the simple and elegant iceberg on the cover, to the fine alk. paperstock on the pages in between. It's not the kind of book that necessarily speaks to me, but next time I'm trying to find the right gift it will be high on the list.
June 25, 2009
My good friend James Ragan's latest volume of poetry is filled with geography and outdoors references. It's like walking through a quiet park in the morning with the mist hovering over the landscape.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews