Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In

by Ed Roberson

There is no one else like Ed Roberson—certainly there is no other poet like him. His is an oblique, eccentric, totally fascinating talent. Because of these qualities, it may seem that he is difficult to follow—as Ornette Coleman or Gabriel García Márquez or Romare Beardon seems difficult to track at times. But his strength of vision is always evident; the quickness and inclusiveness of his voice can sweep a reader along into new and refreshing areas. Roberson's poetic moves are not tricks or affected traits. They are artistic and deeply considered techniques. Reading the two basic cycles of this elliptical and intriguing work could be likened to reading Ezra Pound or a more deliberate and lyrically touched Charles Olson, but with an unanchored allusiveness of things largely American taking the place of the Chinese and the Mayan. Roberson creates that rare combination of sophistication and simplicity which defines truly significant poetry. In this new work he makes the variety of our culture dance from his very special viewpoint.

Genres: Poetry

166 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Charles Edwin (Ed) Roberson is a distinguished American poet, celebrated for his unique diction and intricacy in exploring the natural and cultural worlds. His poetic voice is informed by a background in science and visual art, coupled with his identity as an African American. Roberson has been an active poet since the early 1960s and has authored eight collections, including "Atmosphere Conditions" (1999) and "City Eclogue" (2006). Among his many honors are the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award (1998) and the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award (2008).

Reviews

[Andrea Blancas · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Roberson's poems in this collection reads, "meaning is fragment," and this line captures the very essence of his Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In. What the lines are saying along with the formatting of each line and poem reinforce this fragementation.

Through the power of repetition, sound, and imagery, timless subjects receive a new angle in which to be observed and reflected upon. His poems are themselves "pieces and absences of connection" and while "lives are opinion," Roberson handles each one delicately and deeply.

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

from This Week's Concerts
you have to run forward
and touch the terror of the offered
hallucination of light that packages
what life

you’re going to get kicked
back from the voltage
you’ll live.
I know some electrocuted

people who are fields
blown like the sun
on swaying configuration
of spaces their body holding

their fires out to you as what was charged. (30)

[...]

after having eaten the rice and beans alone,
one piece of rice

after the dishes are gone
is the size. not the weight.

the sound crumbs of the sea
that the delicate

reason comes down to
feed on,

from the beaks that are clear of meaning to,
are brought back up into

the umbilicate ear
out of the seizures of the organ tides,

out of the breaks.
out of the storm, the jazz. (58)

from Interval and Final Day’s Concerts
labyrinth is a real route,
densest in the middle of the floor.
there most crowded with loud intents,
and deepest from any door.

going in circles would be the same but for
that’s being at closure. the stillness and the turn
on repetition is missed here
head-on without the recourse to driving pattern,

to memory. Sense becomes the multiple spot
of collision. phosphene spiders, talk as
variable as the trembled focus makes face.
echo. Where alternative interrupts alternative

no idea lives long enough to see
through and is barely music (65)

[...]

the line from sentence capital
birth to death period.
Just Right : Straight time deliverance
carries the structural sentence. Everything. (72)

from The Aerialist Narratives

All these voices come out to meet us in this
ancient seeing in the end of distances
this fearing:
the glow of the coming city
on the horizon is it burning;
is this music or screaming
all these voices cast out to talk us in? (79)

[...]

Up and down time after time
how many migrations
has ice made home
to water?

The verdant tropical mists’ drip
tears gathering into the cold
bloody rivers of the atlantic
grinding ashore
captured into the plantations’ white glacial field
the rending melt water’s burst
toward a north star state to state
of matter (82)

[...]

We know there is
something
that is not an image

that we
turned quickly enough
and could see with us (106)

[John Hyland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this, along with few other volumes, at the Book Mill in Montegue, MA . . .