Vault

by Alice Jones

From the celestial vault to the crypt, from the bank vault to the cultural vaults of dictionary, encyclopedia and myth, these poems embody all the meanings of the word. Just as a vault can hold or leap, Vault melds the movements of a mind, of an athlete leaping gracefully through the air, of a tongue at play among constellations of vowels and consonants. These poems make use of discontinuity and collage, written in long-lined couplets that recollect a heartbeat’s systole and diastole, sound and silence, the ever-present pulse of being and non-being.

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Emily Perkovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were things about this that I loved but something that I especially didn’t like. I loved that the poetry was found words melded into the author’s own work. It was like a mixed media project without the noise that comes from mixed media. I loved the voice. I loved the lyricism. I absolutely hated that there were areas that would break out into proper nouns and levels of science/history that were sort of above normal knowledge and required more than the comprehension you could gain from a poetry collection. I felt like I would have had to do a research project in order to properly understand some of these pieces. Which I suppose could appeal to some people, but made it hard for me to stay present. If it had been a fiction piece or a hybrid work, where I could learn from the text then I would have been fine with it. I enjoy learning. I don’t enjoy being taken out of the experience.

[Janée Baugher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Associative poetry is a little-known subgenre of the literary arts. Poets are language makers, language workers, who weave imaginings into words while setting aside traditional rhetoric. "Vault" is the height of 21st century associative poetry, and readers would be advised to enter each page with a sense of wonderment as to where words can take them. Brava, Dr. Jones, for this exquisite work-of-art, and for reminding me that the joy of poetry is in the dialectical nuances of words.