Oubliette

by Peter Richards, Tomaž Šalamun (Introduction)

In his introduction to this, Richards’ debut collection, Tomaz Salamun writes "It is inscrutable how Peter Richards produces this religious magma and bathes himself and us in it. How he restores internal time to the work of art."

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2001

Reviews

[Leanna]

These poems feel like relics, like old wind-and-sea battered boxes that I can't quite see how to open. A different kind of consciousness is at work here, one from long, long ago, a sort of primordial, the world-is-just-dawning sensibility. Some of the diction is archaic or esoteric, adding to this otherworldly feel; so, too the emphasis on elementals like the sea, nests, and stars. Indeed, if this poetry is not rooted in the whispers of the ancient past, then I think it is rooted in some kind of other solar system.

I often have no idea what's going on, but that's okay. These poems eject me into an atmosphere of ice and mist and blinking eyes that may or may not crystallize into some later form of humanity. Beware and enjoy--this book is a glacier; it dissolves under the tongue of something enormous and shadowy.

[Nils]

One of my faves...